Shepparton Park held on for a slender victory in round one of the new Goulburn Valley Bowls Division weekend pennant season on Saturday.
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The division one Parkers claimed the 14-93 to 4-90 win against newly-promoted Euroa to start their campaign off on the right foot, with coach Paul Nichols and his rink leading the way.
Nichols, Josh Warren (third), Jeff Boyle (second) and Jim Oliver (lead) started like a house on fire against Bill O'Connor's Euroa quartet, leading 13-0 after just five ends.
From there O'Connor and his charges were able to hold their own, but the damage was already done in the 30-20 result.
Denis Smyth also secured a rink win for the home side at Kialla Park Reserve, defeating Tony Kingma 25-21.
In what was a see-sawing affair, Smyth and his troops found themselves in a spot of bother with six ends to play, down 15-19.
But Peter Brodie (lead), Heath Matthews (second) and Paul Becroft (third) were able to help Smyth steady the ship and win four of the remaining ends to take out the clash 25-21 after leading by as many as five shots early in the contest.
Eric Sellenger found the most joy for Euroa in what was also a battle that had wild momentum swings against Ross Higgins and his rink.
Sellenger was six shots up after nine ends before Higgins won six of the next seven to claim his own six-shot advantage after 16.
The visitors were not about to lie down and take that though, collecting 17 shots to two in the final stages of the fixture to snare a 28-19 triumph.
Ken Sutcliffe also began the year with a rink win, defeating Paul Warren and his charges 21-19, despite losing the last seven ends of the game.
● Shepparton Golf sits in a familiar position atop the Allan Matheson Shield table after a 16-113 to 2-72 win against Hill Top.
Recruit Russell Locke snared the only rink win for the Hillbillies in a 21-17 result against Brad Orr, but Kris Ferguson (33-10) and Col Power (34-14) were in dominant form for the Golfers.
John Gribble (29-27) also claimed a rink win in the triumph.
● Kyabram's nine-shot victory against East Shepparton came about through a pair of rink wins.
Rob George (24-15) and newcomer Glenn Fields (28-21) flew the flag for the Power in the overall 14-102 to 4-93 triumph.
Doug Maconachie (27-23) and Shane McIntosh (30-27) snared points for East.
● Nagambie produced a ripping performance to take out a 14-83 to 4-71 upset against Stanhope and start the summer season on the front foot.
The Lakers were well-served by Rob Page (23-14) and Rob Smith (24-17) in the win, with Brad Robinson (23-21) and Shane Walsh (17-15) collecting consolation points for the visitors.
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