Difficult days out at Victorian City v Country bowls weekend

Apr 10, 2024

Tough going: Shepparton Golf’s Brad Orr had little his own way in his representative clashes. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

A weekend of bowls at Bendigo East left the locals far from glowing as Victoria’s City and Country teams met for their annual playoff.

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Pitting Melbourne’s top bowlers against the best from regional Victoria, the Country crew had won two of the previous three cups.

However, things changed drastically on Saturday and Sunday in a largely one-sided showing when the City slickers coasted home to level the series.

In the men’s and women’s divisions, the Country squads got put up against it and never recovered after dominant showings from their metropolitan adversaries on Saturday morning.

Where the men were concerned, Tallygaroopna’s David Daws and Shepparton Golf’s Brad Orr skipped their own rinks in tangling with the metro squad.

The Bendigo East rinks proved unfriendly confines early for the Tallygaroopna champion, with his quartet soundly knocked over 28-10 on Saturday morning and 19-17 to Nathan Lynch’s side that afternoon before saving face with a big Sunday win over Brett Mahoney.

The news was less positive for Orr, who skipped a 22-19 loss to Mahoney, a 21-16 defeat to Bryce Young and an especially tough 22-8 result against Matt Flapper, while Country scraped its sole win of the weekend.

Orr surmised the scene bluntly.

“We were outplayed, there was no doubt about that,” Orr said.

“They’re a quality side and some of our players weren’t at their best. If you’re even slightly off, you’re going to get found out.

“They’ve got a lot of quality players, not that we don’t, but we had the chance to make it harder for the opposition and we didn’t.

“They played the bowls better when it mattered.”

The Country men at least got a morale boost from taking the Sunday clash as consolation, though.

“Nobody likes going away and playing a series without coming away with one win,” Orr said.

“To win that last game and actually get something out of it was a positive.

“The boys rallied well after a tough Saturday, so it was good for everyone to get something out of the Sunday.”

There were no Goulburn Valley Playing Area representatives in the women’s draw, as the Country women fell short 81-55 in their first encounter before losing 81-68 on Saturday afternoon, and City completed its sweep with an 86-71 win on Sunday morning.