Tatura Bowls Club, formed in 1904, and Hill Top bowls, formed in 1965, have merged their players into a "one town side” and are expecting to be a strong influence in both midweek and weekend GVBD pennant.
In the weekend pennant Tatura-Hill Top will have a side in divisions one to six with two sides in division five and in midweek pennant a division one, two division twos and a division four.
Past considerations and discussions on amalgamations and mergers for the two town clubs had been discussed many times in the past but had failed to materialise, however the merging of players for pennant only has seen both clubs still retaining their own facilities, club structure, finances and importantly their own club history.
Tatura Bowls Club's chairman John Crilly has been an advocate for a merger for many years, strongly believing that it was a necessity for the Tatura clubs if they were to compete successfully at the highest level.
Tatura's last division one pennant grand final win was way back in 1995-96 and the club has been unable to replicate that feat and in the ensuing years was no longer a threat to the sides in the top four.
For the past 15 years its top side has been competing at division two level.
Hill Top have on a few occasions managed to be competitive at the top level but have usually struggled and have never won a division one flag.
Hill Top Bowls Club chairman Rod Piggott envisages with the player merger that the Tatura township's fortunes were about to change and is confident that many of the merged sides will be successful at season's end.
Over the last seven years in division one pennant the competition has been dominated by Shepparton sides with Shepp Golf winning five and Shepp Park two premierships. However it's not all about division one; the merger will strengthen the Tatura-Hill Top combination across all levels of competition in GV pennant.
A Tatura-Hill Top-organised pre-pennant bowls challenge has been played among members under lights at Tatura last Thursday evening and also on the Saturday at the Hill Top venue to allow the appointed selection group to view players and to assist in determining players’ best position and division in readiness for pennant, which will be commencing in the first week of November.
The weekly challenges will continue to be scheduled up to the commencement of GV pennant with attempts to have teams of equal ability competing against each other.
Greens facilities at both clubs will be shared and there has been a joint pennant and selection committee formed with representatives from both clubs.
The selection committee comprises Brendon Boyd (chairperson), David Cartwright, Dianne Downie, Garry Russell, Justin Spedding and Peter Wallis.
The pennant committee is made up of Rod Piggott (chairperson), Phil Boyd, John Crilly, Trevor Downie, and Jeanette Overall and they are expecting Tatura-Hill Top to be competitively strong across all divisions in the coming pennant season.
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