A Memorial Triples bowls event was played at Tatura Bowls Club with entries from Tatura, Murchison, Traralgon, Shepparton Park, Colbinabbin, Hill Top and Rushworth.
The annual event, conducted since 2001, is in honour of Jack Lowry — a valued former member of the Tatura Bowls Club who joined the club at 50 years of age and had a long association with the sport of bowls, which he greatly enjoyed. Jack Lowry was also active in community affairs and was a long-serving councillor with the former Shire of Rodney. As the shire president, Jack opened the new buildings at Tatura Bowls Club in 1969. A true gentleman and servant of the community, Jack passed away in March 2001 aged 88.
In the day's bowls there were three sides who won the maximum three games and, hard to believe, all were equal on ends won; so it came down to shots up. Missing out on a prize was the Rushworth team of Mal McLean (s), Neville Thompson and Mavis Marshall.
Jack's daughter Helen Newton of Murchison presented the shield and major prize to the winning team from Shepparton Park, being Doug and Leonie Freeman with Glenn Edwards. Runners-up who also collected winnings were Hill Top's Noel Mulcahy (s), Bernie Maher and Nancye Brisbane.
The hamper raffle winner was Sue Moreton with both Keith Smith and Ken Cornell collecting cash prizes.
Attendees enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea provided by the Tatura Club and had an enjoyable time on the greens which are currently in an excellent condition and being utilised for many of the Goulburn Valley Bowls District finals, and this weekend will feature GV bowls grand finals on both the Saturday and Sunday.
Tatura Bowls Club's ambition in seeking a game on grand final day has come to a close for its Division 2 team after a heavy loss to Shepparton Golf in the elimination final. However the Division 6 West side, which was also playing Shepparton Golf, has continued its season with a win in its elimination final and will play Stanhope at Hill Top next Saturday.
Tatura's Division 2, which was runner-up in the grand final to Euroa last year, was unable to match the Shepparton Golf team in this year's elimination final. With three rinks competitive but with one rink soundly beaten, Tatura was smashed on the scoreboard by 31 shots, 74 to 105.
There could be no blame placed on the greens, for they were in excellent condition and it was great for supporters that the GVBD saw fit that both Tatura and Shepparton Golf were at the same venue.
Tatura's sole winning rink saw an extremely close contest all day between Brendon Boyd and Graeme Waddell; scores were tied on the penultimate end with Boyd's rink of Peter Wallis, Bob Bordett, and Rod Kirby scoring onw shot to claim a win on that rink, 24 to 23. John Attwood (s), Nick Tziros, Dot Best and Ash McDonell played Graeme Myers and were level on five occasions during the game, and with Shep Golf's Myers scoring a three on the last to tie the game it was six times level for the day and a drawn final result, 22 each.
Nick Boyd and his crew of Terry Gale, Brendan Sharp and Mark Spencer battled all day against Roy Brown but could never gain the ascendancy, despite winning 12 of the 25 ends. Multiple single-shot scoring (8) and conceding larger numbers resulted in a defeat by seven shots, 17 to 24.
The thrashing for the day was Tatura's Jason Carter (s), Phil Boyd, John Crilly and Darryn Carpenter who were unable to match it with Wayne Gribble's rink and fell by the huge margin of 25 shots, 11 to 36. Carter, in crossing, would find the head in deficit on just about every occasion. The overall result loomed ominously at the lunch break, and Tatura after 45 ends was trailing by 20 shots, 32 to 52, while Shepparton Golf thereafter never let up the pressure and will now go onto meet the undefeated Tallygaroopna side in the Division 2 grand final to be played at Kyabram.
Tatura's Division 6 West side had a battle on its hands against Shepparton Golf, with Tatura at the lunch break having just one of the three rinks up, but with a one-shot advantage 29 to 28. Rod Kirby, the current president of the club, was down 9 to 10 at the break but then proceeded to skip his team of Dave Westin, Freda Clement and Faye Attwood to demolish the opposing John Clurey team, scoring 21 shots to three to set up a great comeback and victory by 17 shots, 30 to 13.
The rink of Joyce Andrus (s), Col Johnson, Michael Stone and Graham Andrus was the sole winning rink; up eight shots at the break, this was the margin at the end of the day with Andrus defeating Ken Cooper 28 to 20.
Young gun `Super’ Seth Tziros’ run as an undefeated skipper came to an inglorious end when the only time his rink was in front was on the first end. Tziros (s), Paul Hussey, Jeff Hussey and Paul Nowland battled on to win 12 of the 25 ends, but dropping a four and a five made it difficult to overcome the Bruce Giovanetti side and Tatura lost by 10 shots, 15 to 25.
An overall 15-shot win, 73 to 58, set up a grand final match against Stanhope at Hill Top next Saturday.
Many club events are drawing to a close for this bowls season and the men's 100-up has now concluded with Nick Tziros winning his fourth final in the past 10 years. Nick defeated John Evans in the keenly watched final.
The men's 21-up final is to be between John Evans and Michael Stone, two bowlers fairly new to the game, and the B-grade championship is down to the final two bowlers, being Dave Westin and the president Rod Kirby. Ladies’ events are also progressing and will need to be completed prior to the presentation night which will be on Friday, April 3.
— John Crilly