Mooroopna's Josh Grieve lets fly.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
The Goulburn Valley Playing Area Allan Matheson Shield kicked off its new season in nail-biting fashion, with three thrilling matches decided by margins of eight shots or less.
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Reigning Division 1 champions Shepparton Golf continued their winning form from last season, but faced stiff competition from finals aspirants Tatura Hill Top across all four rinks on the blue and gold's home greens.
The Jarryd Tinning-skipped quartet of David McEvoy, Seth Tziros, and Nicholas Boyd picked up the Bulldog's best rink result, notching a 26-17 win over Golf’s Kristoffer Ferguson.
Shepparton skips Peter Lesueur and Brad Orr steadied with five-shot wins and Golf’s John Gribble, Scott Bohun, Trevor Dunlop, and Alan Dove brought it home for the reigning premier with a 23-19 result.
Golf’s 16-90 to 2-85 triumph marks a perfect start to the flag defence, while last year’s other grand finalist Tallygaroopna showcased a more ruthless edge against newcomers Seymour VRI.
The Redlegs’ 46-shot victory was built on the back of a decisive 28-9 second rink the way of Mitch Sidebottom and his four, while sizeable wins to the Mark Ryan and Guy Madigan-led quartets fired Tally out past the 100-shot mark.
Seymour didn’t walk away empty-handed, however, with Phillip Chalas and co stealing a final-end shot for a 20-19 win, but the Redlegs were unperturbed en route to an eventual 16-101 to 2-55 aggregate win.
Those two results seem to indicate we’ll be getting more of the same from the top two incumbents, but elsewhere, the bottom two of last season went to work to ensure an immediate win on the board.
Mooroopna hosted East Shepparton first up, and rink one honours went the way of the Bruce Anselmi-skippered Cats 25-18.
East Shepparton struck back with a narrow 16-14 rink up in the second through Kevin Beacon, Don Dickinson, Les Norton, and David Torrance, but Craig O’Shannessy’s four stole a two-shot reply in the third rink to keep the Cats up.
Mooroopna skip Darren Kelly, alongside Daniel Considine, Sandra Thomas, and Olivia Andrews, won by the narrowest of margins, a single shot separating them and Robert Thorne’s East’s cohort.
The net result an eight-shot victory to the Cats, whose attention will turn to the other end of town in a bout against Shepparton Park in round two.
The Park also opened its account for the season, capping off a fruitful road trip to Euroa with a 16-75 to 2-68 win.
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