Shepparton Park silences the doubters with victory against Kyabram in Allan Matheson Shield opener

The game went down to the death ― the last roll, even.

Park and Kyabram shared two rink wins, but the former secured a much-needed triumph to silence the doubters, much to the delight of bowls director Paul Becroft.

“We were all happy because unfortunately some of the better pundits had put us down as not making the four this year at all which sort of gave us a bit of fire in the belly to prove them wrong,” Becroft said.

“They’re last year’s grand finalists, I know they’ve had changes and we’ve had changes, but overall we’re really happy with our game.

“We had rinks go up and two rinks down, but the rinks up covered the two which went down.

“It was a good standard of bowls, Ky bowled really well and it went down to two shots in the last bowl to go down.”

The match was tit for tat, with Park scoring a 12-shot win in rink one.

Kyabram coach Brent Reiner led his outfit to a 29-13 result in the second rink and the Bombers would clinch the third rink by three shots.

However, Graeme Myers and his rink four squad recorded a vital 25-16 win to close the game and hoist Park into the top four, a spot where Becroft and his teammates wish to be at the pointy end.

He was especially pleased with the performances of Park’s leads, comprised of Kate Bush, Richard Hanson, Bree Warren and Sue Tyson.

“I think we’ve got a good mix now, the leads start off well and it all flows after the lead,” Becroft said.

“The leads bowled really well which set the seconds, thirds and the skips up.

“Kate Bush bowled really well as the lead, actually they all did, Sue Tyson went well.

“Bree Warren, who’s only probably a first-gamer in division one, she normally plays around division three; she went really well too.”

Further north, Shepparton Golf began its title defence in fine fashion against newcomer Euroa.

Some would have predicted a rout as last season’s division two premier met the division one flag holder, though the gulf in class was only truly evident in the third rink.

Brett Gunning and co trounced Anthony Kingma’s crew 38-11 to underline a strong round one performance, the final score reading 16-109 to 2-75 in Golf’s favour.

Meanwhile, Tallygaroopna looked a cut above Tatura-Hill Top as it flew to a 60-shot victory on the road.

Scott Adams met the wrath of his former club as the combine succumbed 18-119 to 0-59 to the Redlegs, now finding themselves at the foot of the table.

Lastly, Mooroopna has already matched its 2022-23 win record by steering past East Shepparton 16-94 to 2-88.

New pick up Craig O’Shannessy was instrumental for Mooroopna, orchestrating a 28-21 victory in the fourth rink.