HATS off to two Kyabram sporting veterans on their recent achievements.
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Tennis ace David Starling and champion lawn bowler Greg Shilling have again covered themselves in glory in their respective sports.
David excelled again in the annual Victorian Inter-Regional Country Tennis Championships held in Bendigo.
The professional tennis coach claimed three titles in the 35-49 age group to be a major contributor in the Goulburn Region securing its third successive win in the championships.
David won the singles against teammate Bruce Ferguson in an all-Goulburn final, then teamed with Ferguson to win the doubles. He completed the hat-trick when he partnered Cobram star Helene Steward to win the mixed doubles.
David’s three wins were among 11 wins and four runners-up recorded by Goulburn players in the titles.
In the last three years David has won seven of the nine titles he has contested.
Goulburn’s hat-trick of wins deserved to be well celebrated because they have come after a 57-year ‘drought’ in this competition.
Gun lawn bowler Greg Shilling claimed his 11th Kyabram Bowls Club title in the lead-up to Christmas.
Greg accounted for another of the town’s most successful sports persons, David Cartwright, in the final.
Only the late Des Nuttall, a former local pharmacist, won more club titles at Kyabram than Shilling. Between 1928 and 1955 Nuttall claimed 14 club titles.
Shilling’s 11 titles have been achieved since 1999 and in that time he has made the final 15 times.
Cartwright has gone close to winning on several occasions and is just as proficient at golf, a sport in which he has claimed 15 Parkland Golf Club titles.
Renegade’s Deni link
DENILIQUIN has a direct link with another first class cricketer.
Sam Harper who plays for the Melbourne Renegades as a top order batsman and wicket-keeper in the Big Bash League is the son of former Deniliquin cricketer Bryan Harper.
Bryan Harper is regarded as one of Deniliquin’s greatest ever cricketers and in the 1982-83 season made a double century for RSL in a semi-final. He was a member of three successive RSL premiership winning teams in that era.
Deniliquin, of course, is the home town of former Victorian and Australian allrounder Simon O’Donnell while arguably Australia’s greatest ’keeper-batsman, Adam Gilchrist, lived in the town for some time as a young boy.
Galvin takes reins
KYABRAM District Football League club Longwood has named its coach for the coming season.
Mick Galvin takes on the challenging role from Nick Brown who landed the coaching gig at new KDL club Shepparton East.
And Galvin’s wife, Gail, is a more than handy addition to the Longwood netball ranks.
In more KDL news Murchison-Toolamba will welcome home former player Dylan Moncur to its ranks in the coming season.
Moncur, who has spent the last four seasons with Stanhope, will give more running power to the Grasshoppers midfield.