RACECOURSE turned the tables on their grand final conquerors on the first weekend of the new Northern Valley pennant competition, defeating Murray Downs by two shots.
In a highly competitive contest that went down to the final end, last year’s Murray Valley Playing Area runners-up proved too strong, 66-64 overall.
Peter Loughran and Norm Smith both won their rinks to give Racecourse victory 10 points to two.
It was a strong display from a weakened Racecourse line-up, missing key bowlers Mick Holyoak and Glenn McKissack.
President Norm Smith was delighted with the result.
“We were absolutely stoked, it went right down to the last bowl to see who would win, they don’t get much closer than that,” Smith told The Guardian.
“Glenn McIntosh’s team were down by a fair way and they really had to hang in there, which they did and thankfully he didn’t have to bowl his last bowl.
“Even though they lost badly, they were pretty happy.”
Murray Downs didn’t walk away empty handed from the weekend, however, with Garry McCaig skippering his rink to a dominant 31-16 win, which almost singlehandedly won the tie for the Rams.
Substituting for regular skipper Josh Thornton, McCaig and his team couldn’t turn around the losses on the other two rinks, however.
The combination of Loughran, Graeme Bennett, DJ Weaver and Kevin Vivian claimed an 11-shot win over John Caldwell’s combination, and Smith, Trevor Wiseman, Ron Wolfe and Tony Evans defeated Brian Lehmann’s combination by six shots.
Racecourse face Kerang this Saturday and Smith said early wins were key to finals success.
“It will be interesting to see how we go against (Kerang), we played them in a practice match and did alright, but their line-up will be a bit different to that,” he said.
“We’re pretty stoked after Saturday’s win and we are looking forward to this week though.”
Elsewhere, a dominant display from Brian Bowles gave Kerang victory over Kerang Golf by seven shots, 69-62.
Bowles and his combination of Kevin Teasdale, Adrian Bates and David Orr dominated in their match-up against the Richard Murray combination for Kerang Golf, claiming a 35-16 victory despite trailing 8-1 after the first four ends.
The quartet’s victory was good enough to hand Kerang victory, with Kerang Golf’s Frank Ritchie (10 shots) and Dallas Mathers (two shots) taking the points on the other two rinks.
In a match that went according to script, Cohuna Golf secured a nine-shot win over Barham.
Last year’s Northern District Playing Area premiers were too strong on two of the three rinks, with Barham coach Brody Harker’s combination ensuring it wasn’t a clean sweep with a six-shot win over Jarred Hammond.
That was where the joy ended for Barham, however, with Harrison Keely’s team defeating Glenn Faul by eight shots and Rod Fletcher defeating Brian Mansbridge by seven shots.
The Murray Valley Playing Area weekend pennant season also got under way on Saturday, with Swan Hill 1 sitting on top of the ladder after a dominant 33-shot win over Racecourse 2, 93-60.
The other match-ups went the way of Moulamein 1, who defeated Nyah District 1 by 17 shots with a two-rinks-to-one victory, and Murray Downs 2, who beat Lake Boga 1 by 27 shots, 90-63.
