At long last, the Tally train is ready to roll back into its own station.
The Tallygaroopna Bowls Club greens have been declared fit for use ahead of the upcoming Goulburn Valley Playing Area season, multiple years after they last had live bowls on them.
During that time, the pennant side and current holder of the Allan Matheson Shield, along with all of Tallygaroopna’s other grades, have had to adopt a co-tenancy at Shepparton Park Bowls Club on the south end.
Now with home comforts back in the pocket ahead of season 2024-25, there’ll be no more looking nervously over one’s shoulder at results on the opposite rinks during concurrent games.
Tallygaroopna president Dean Jones was certainly grateful for the support shown for his club from across the competition, but couldn’t be more delighted to return home.
“It all took a bit longer than anticipated and we were hoping to get back on in the back half of the season just gone,” Jones said.
“We took our time with it and thought ‘there’s no rush’; we stripped it right back to basics and it probably hadn’t been laid that bare in 20 years.
“We put a lot of time and effort into making sure we got it right again.
“Shepparton Park was really good to us while we didn’t have a home base, but we were also grateful to Shepparton Golf and East Shepparton for accommodating us when they could.”
As for what the club lost beyond merely access to its home greens for more than a year and a half, the losses are hard to calculate in precise measures.
“When you don’t play at home, you’ve got no bar and no training nights there,” Jones said.
“We have a big draw at Christmas every year and we were able to keep that going as well as run our club tournament at Shepparton Golf for the past two years.
“It’s difficult to estimate what it’s cost in terms of losses over that time, but it’s something we had to do.”
Now it’s time to look forward as the next Matheson Shield campaign rolls around.
With no fixture details available as yet, Jones said he had not asked the league for a home opener, but that the first game back would be a big occasion regardless of when that should fall.
“We’ll be looking to have a reopening celebration,” Jones said.
“We were lucky our top two sides played off in finals and it was a pretty good day for us considering that lack of a home base at the time.
“Guys have been going out and having a roll on it and we’re just looking forward to getting everyone at our club and all our opponents out there again.”