Six and out for Kyabram pennant teams

Kyabram beat Yea by six shots in round six this year, but when the teams met on February 11, they could not be split, and each finished with 55 games for the afternoon.

The grand final scoreline was right in the middle of those two results as Bob Mason and Ray Harrison both skipped their rinks to victory.

Geoffrey Hocking remained in touch on the other rink, losing by just four shots.

Mason, bowling with Murray Boswood, Garry Solomons and Lucy Portia, scored four shots on the fifth end of his match and by the eighth end had cleared out to an eight-shot lead.

He finished with wins on 12 of the 21 ends and a three-shot victory

Harrison had Dominic Perri, Alan Roberts and Thomas Polglaze in support, but took a while to shake his Yea opponent.

After 12 ends the teams were tied on 11 apiece, but in the space of three ends, it was Harrison that secured eight shots.

He gave six of those back on a single end before finishing with wins on 11 of the 21 ends.

– Seymour VRI secured the division four crown with a 19-shot, 100 to 83, win against Kyabram.

Seymour swept all four rinks, Michael Szczykulski was the star for VRI, with his 25-17 win in rink three proving the catalyst for the victory.

Greg Jones was a standout with a 28-22 rink win, while teammates Joseph Purcell (21-19) and Phillip Challis (26-15) triumphed in narrow rink victories.

The grand final victory capped off a sublime season for Seymour VRI, which saw the club claim the minor premiership.

– As the final end concluded in Saturday’s Goulburn Valley Playing Area weekend pennant division two grand final at Stanhope Bowls Club, there was a common theme surrounding the conversations between the jubilant Euroa players.

We are back where we belong.

After being relegated from the region’s top flight bowls competition at the end of last season, it took just 365 days for the Magpies to return to the Allan Matheson Shield.

And it was a perfect performance on grand final day that capped a successful stint down in division two.

Facing a Kyabram squad that lost just one game all season en route to the minor premiership, Euroa saved its best performance for last as it dominated the decider from start to finish to run out a clinical 16-135 to 2-78 winner.

Heading into the clash as an underdog, the Magpies quickly shook off that tag as all four rinks got off to fast starts.

Ultimately they would win three of those rinks, with an incredible 50-20 win by Tony Kingma in rink four and a clinical 33-15 demolition by the legendary Ken Sutcliffe in rink two paving the way for the 47-shot win.

Houston said it was the ultimate “team performance” from his squad.

“From the start we were just on, it was great to watch,” he said.

“We played a rather aggressive game and a few things went our way and went against them, which sort of got us on a roll.

“Kenny (Sutcliffe) does what Kenny does and he led from the front for us, we had Tony Kingma who was absolutely superb and Shane Drysdale in his first year of skipping has been massive for us.

“The game was beautiful for us today, nothing went wrong.”