Gallery | Shepparton Park withstands a gallant Stanhope to remain unbeaten

Back on their grass greens for the first time this season, the Parkers ticked off two valuable assignments in the 14-104 to 4-96 win.

The first mission was to be unbeaten by the time of the Vic Open break, while the other was to perform well and win games on the grass.

Shepparton Park team selector Ash Williamson said the outfit was pleased and confident following its third win of the season.

“When we looked at the block of games we had leading into the Vic Open break, we had a plan to be unbeaten and we really wanted to tick that off, so to be able to achieve that is great,” he said.

“We were playing on our grass greens for the first time this season and they were running really slick ... we want to be playing on grass and testing ourselves because at the end of the day it’s what you play on in finals and we want to be playing finals.

“We’ve only dropped the eight points from three games and that gives us a fair bit of confidence as we lead into the next stretch of games after the break.”

Stanhope arrived at Kialla with plenty of hunger and spent little time mucking around.

The visitors raced away to the lead and held that advantage at smoko, until Park made a late charge.

Jeff Boyle and his rink were able to mount a serious comeback after they trailed early in the contest.

Down by eight at one stage, Boyle’s rink turned things around and recorded a valuable 23-18 victory over Ben Fletcher and his rink.

Stanhope’s Gregory Fitzpatrick claimed a 30-26 rink win over Josh Warren, while Stanhope’s Rob Ponton and his rink triumphed by one shot.

Park’s Paul Nichols secured a crucial 28-20 which sealed the 14 points going the way of the home side.

“We expected it to go down to the wire. Stanhope always has been competitive against us,” Williamson said.

“Paul Warren’s rink built an early lead, but dropped seven shots and that brought the other rink into play ... Ponton and his rink were up by two at the second last end and managed to hold on by one.

“We were down at smoko and (we) had to knuckle down after the break. The momentum seemed to change a lot. Jeff Boyle’s rink was down by eight and did well to win that one which was great to see and it will give them plenty of confidence going forward.”

Around the greens, Tallygaroopna pencilled in a mammoth win over East Shepparton under lights on Friday.

Tally came out and blew the home side away with a rollicking 18-135 to 0-60 win.

Geoff Franze, Mark Ryan, Mitch Sidebottom and David Daws enjoyed comfortable rink wins.

Meanwhile, Tatura-Hill Top pinched a rink win off Shepparton Golf in its narrow 13-shot defeat.

The combined outfit’s Peter Le Sueur led a classy rink effort that triumphed 23-18 over John Gribble.

However, Golf had the last laugh as Alan Dove, Brad Orr and Brett Foley chalked up rink victories.

Lastly, Kyabram managed to get over the line against a gallant Mooroopna.

The two outfits had a share of the four rink wins, but it was the home side that prevailed by 12 shots.

Geoff Beattie (29-16) and his rink performed strongly, along with Connor Trewen (31-22).

Mooroopna skips Bruce Anselmi (24-19) and Alan Davidson (26-21) gave the away side plenty of positives to take away from the loss.