It began as the warning sound of a whistle from far off in the distance at around the 70th end of proceedings.
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But before long the Shepparton Golf steamtrain was hurtling along at breakneck speed, taking up the entire space of Shepparton Park's rearview mirror at Tatura Bowls Club yesterday.
The Parkers had led for most of the division one Goulburn Valley Bowls Division decider, but with the Allan Matheson Shield - and their top tier dynasty - on the line, the Golfers found as much coal as they needed to stoke the fires of premiership glory.
It took until around 10 ends remaining for Brad Orr and his troops to hit the front once more - on the back of a John Gribble five and David Daws three in the final throes of their respective clashes - but once they did they were never looking back.
“It was (very hard fought),” Orr said.
“Halfway through it I thought we were battling a little bit, but to the boys’ credit they fought back.
“Commiserations to Shepp Park, they definitely brought it today.
“Overall our last halves throughout the year have been pretty good, generally at the start we've probably struggled to get going a bit, but we always knew we'd have to fight after smoko.
“To Park's credit they didn't lay down, they threw everything back at us and we were lucky enough to get a couple of numbers when it mattered and probably just put our noses in front.”
A late three from Peter Matthews gave the Parkers hope for one last push, but Col Power and Orr on their rink - and Kris Ferguson on his - produced the standard of bowls the Golfers have been collectively known for over the past five summers to get the party started in earnest.
“It is very special,” Orr said.
“To get our five in a row I'm over the moon with the result and the boys are pretty happy, but they had to really work and I think that one is by far the best to be honest.”
Orr, Power, Wayne Dagger and John Dagger defeated Parker coach Paul Nichols 26-20, with John Stokes, John Hallam, John Foley and Rhys Newby - in his first grand final at the club - had the better of Denis Smyth's rink 28-19.
Hallam had steered the quartet into celebration with a pair of outstanding deliveries on the last end, threading the needle through a wall of bowls two feet out from the jack to rest either side of it.
Matthews ended up with the last laugh over Daws, Ferguson, Neville Manton and Glenn Power 24-23, while Paul Warren also found a 24-19 victory over Gribble, Leigh Clark, Ian Ritchie and Peter Fairgrieve.
But it was not enough to stop the Golfers taking out a fifth triumph in a row in the competition.
“For our little club out there on the sand dunes, it's going places,” Orr said.
“We've had a fair bit of success this year, everyone's played finals, everyone made it to at least a prelim, the midweek division one and four won it, so we're a happy little club and we get along pretty well on and off the green and we'll be back again next year.”
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