Steamers’ surge falls short of State Pennant title

By Matthew Kappos

May 7, 2024

So close: Moama Steamers made a finals run in the weekend pennant State Championships, but fell in the final to Deer Park. Photo: Supplied

Moama Steamers have put in a competitive performance, but ultimately were unable to claim the Bowls Victoria Weekend State Pennant title.

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The championships were held at Moama Bowling Club from May 4-5 with 10 regional winners competing to secure the state title.

The local side emerged victorious from section one but were defeated 39-29 by the section two winners Deer Park in the final.

Moama dominated the group stage, scoring wins over Frankston, Victoria (Ballarat), and Cohuna Golf on Saturday to be the only undefeated side in the section overnight.

The Steamers secured their place in the final when they defeated Bairnsdale in the opening game on Sunday, their 4-0 record in the section unassailable with only one game remaining.

Moama fell to Stawell in the final match of round-robin play but were still set for the clash with Deer Park in the final.

The game was closely fought in two of the three rinks, with the quartet skipped by Cameron Keenan, including Jacob Brighton (lead), Bradley Campbell (second) and Travis Kelly (third) securing a 10-8 win for Moama.

It was also neck and neck in the rink skipped by Alex Marshall, with Deer Park skip Jay Bye-Norris narrowly leading his side to victory 13-12.

In the end, the match was defined by the remaining rink, where Ryan Tainton skipped his Deer Park foursome to a more clear-cut 18-7 success, defeating the Moama side skipped by Kevin Anderson, resulting in the 10-shot overall win for Deer Park.

“Obviously we got off to a flier on Saturday winning all three games,” Anderson said.

“It was a really good effort, some of the younger guys really stepped up to the occasion.

“Jacob Brighton, Cameron Keenan, Bradley Campbell, some of the guys were really good (and) have done themselves proud.

“Obviously disappointed to lose the final but we did play against an unbelievable Deer Park side who would have been favourites going into it and they certainly showed why yesterday afternoon.”

Due to the different format of the State Pennant Championships to the weekend pennant, Moama was forced to reduce the squad from the 16 that won the weekend competition, to just 12 for this week’s event.

“A really tough job, going from 16 players that won the Bendigo League to the 12 and probably one of the toughest decisions we've had to make but we made a really good account of ourselves,” Anderson said.

“It was a great effort to get to the final, but we just couldn’t get over the line in the last match.”

The State Championships kicked off a busy two weeks for the Moama Bowling Club, with the midweek pennant championships taking place on May 6-7, with Bendigo Bowls Club representing the region, and the annual bowls carnival running from May 11-19.