A series of post-season state championship victories have continued to lessen the blow of a disappointing end to the 2023 Kyabram Bowls Club pennant season.
The club lost the division one and two grand finals only a month ago, but since then a swag of Victorian state event wins has bolstered spirits.
Representing the Goulburn Murray region against the other 15 state associations, the Kyabram club has shone on the big stage.
Three of the bowlers involved in the division-one grand final loss to Shepparton Golf, David Cartwright, Brent Reiner and Josh Cartwright combined to win the triples title last week at Bendigo East Bowling Club.
Their win comes hot on the heels of the success of brothers, Charlie and Henry Boswood, in the Victorian Under-18 pairs title.
Although playing with Moama Steamers in the Bendigo Campaspe Goldfields association, the club can rightly lay claim to playing the lead role in developing the 2023 women’s singles champion — Olivia Cartwirght.
She also made the final of the mixed pairs, losing with Moama teammate Brad Campbell, and the semi-finals of the women’s pairs with the state’s champion of champion winner Cass Millerick — who also bowls with Moama.
Her father and brother combined with 2023 Kyabram recruit Reiner to start their bid for the triples victory with a 17-9 win against a Bundoora team, picking up six shots late in the match to blow out the result.
The Goulburn Murray champions followed that up with a 20-13 semi-final result, leading 15-4 after seven ends after claiming a pair of four shot ends early in the match.
A one-shot semi-final win, against a Gippsland trio, came after seven successive end wins allowed it to address an early deficit and eventually win the 19 end contest 14-13.
Pitted against the Metro West champions, a Melton trio, the Kyabram bowlers won the title with a 14-11 scoreline after skipping out to an 8-2 win from the opening six ends.
The margin was closed to three with three ends remaining, but the team steadied and secured the championship with wins on 10 of the 18 ends.
Stanhope’s Tim Hancock was the district’s other Goulburn Murray representative and lost in the first round of the state event, to Geelong’s Tyson Cromie.