Back-to-back defeats for Kyabram’s division one Goulburn Valley Playing Area midweek pennant competition may come back to haunt the team in 2025.
After losing to seventh-ranked Euroa the Kyabram team then lost a second straight game, by four shots, to second-ranked Shepparton Park in the final pre-Christmas round of the nine-week-old season.
Now third, the Kyabram team has a tough draw for the final five rounds of the home and away season, before the finals start in mid-February. They face four of the top six teams, including ladder-leader Tallygaroopna, and the three teams directly below it on the ladder.
Kyabram beat Shepparton Park by eight shots in round two, but the Park team turned the tables in the pre-Christmas match.
The team has only been beaten by Tallygaroopna and, in a shock result, by second-bottom Euroa (by five shots the week before its loss to Shepparton Park).
Graeme King, Chris Williams, Bob Mason, Chris Preddy, along with Mary and Joe Greco are the best performed bowlers this season. They all occupy spots inside the top 30 on the 2024-25 player ladder.
– A sensational start to the 2024-25 season by the division two Kyabram midweek pennant team has been tempered somewhat by the results of the following eight weeks.
Kyabram beat top team VRI to open the season, by six shots, but VRI has not been beaten since. Kyabram won its first two games, lost the next three, and now sits fourth on the ladder with a 4-5 win/loss record.
They have a mixed run to the finals, facing the second, third and fifth-ranked teams that they have already lost to this season.
It was a winning end to 2024 for the season, beating second-bottom Rushworth by 22 shots after only beating them by one shot earlier in the season.
In the final five weeks the Kyabram team will start favourite in games against bottom team Seymour and sixth-ranked Shepparton Golf.
Graham King, Maurice Hateley and Lucy Portia are the team’s top ranked bowlers on the player ladder, all with six wins from nine games and ranked 12th to 14th seeds in the competition.
– Kyabram is 20 pennant points outside of the top four in the division three competition, but has only two less wins than the third and fourth-ranked teams.
In the final two weeks before the Christmas break the team has lost to ladder-leader Nagambie and fifth-ranked Tatura-Hill Top. Their three wins this season have come against teams ranked fourth, fifth and eighth on the ladder.
In the final five weeks they face three of the top four teams - Avenel, Numurkah and Mooroopna Golf - which will make any sort of charge at the finals a tough assignment.
Darryl Gade and Monika King are both ranked in the division’s top 20 bowlers (15th and 16th), with six wins for the season. Next best, however, is 39th seed Pauline Mason.
– The Christmas break has not come at a good time for the Kyabram division five team - having won four straight games after losing four of the opening four matches of the season.
They have moved to third on the ladder after beating bottom team East Shepparton (by 18 shots), fourth ranked Violet Town by (17 shots), top team Mooroopna (by 18) and fifth placed Euroa by (39 shots) in the last month of competition.
In the new year they have the chance to further climb the ladder, now just 14 pennant points off top spot, facing three teams outside the top four in the final five games.
Brian Lindsay has been the division’s best performed bowler this season, his 7-2 win/loss record as a second making him the top seed. Five other Kyabram bowlers, William Hindson, John Macfadyen, Murray Boswood, Garry Solomons and Geoffery Hocking, are also in the top 10 seeds.