Stanhope’s sudden rise to prominence in the Campaspe Playing Area’s division one weekend pennant bowls competition has been headlined by an extraordinary eight-shot single end haul on Saturday.
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Greg Fitzpatrick’s rink produced one of the highlights of the season on Saturday against Mathoura, every one of the bowls that were sent down by the foursome counting at the end of the 18th end.
The eight-shot haul is considered the pinnacle for any skip and was preceded by a six-shot win on the 16th end and a pair of four-shot wins earlier in the game.
Stanhope now has six players who feature in the top 10 seeds.
Fitzpatrick is the association’s leading skip after six rounds, and along with his third Peter Myers, occupy the top two spots on the player ladder after their rink helped Stanhope beat last year’s premier by a massive 48 shots - 81-33 (16-0).
Fitzpatrick and his rink, which had promoted Graeme Nurse in the lead role with Austin Maxwell out of the line-up, won 37-10 - losing just five of the 21 ends.
Results from other games also went the way of Stanhope.
Moama Steamers’ loss to lowly Rich River and Tongala’s loss to Echuca now has Stanhope sitting alone at the top of the ladder - 16 pennant points clear of its nearest opponent with a 5-1 win/loss record.
Deniliquin, the Steamers and Tongala have now all lost two games, with Stanhope due to face the Moama unit this weekend. Last year’s premier, Mathoura, sits third-bottom as one of three teams with only one win from six games.
The team that Stanhope beat on Saturday had only one skip - Peter Holzer - remaining of last year’s premiership winning skips, with Mick Humphreys and Jason McLoy no longer at the club.
Holzer and only three members of that grand final team were left from the team that beat Tongala by seven shots in the decider.
Last year Mathoura beat Stanhope 73-41 in round three and by 20 shots in round 10. From that 2023-24 round 10 match there were only six players remaining in the Stanhope team that took to the rinks on Saturday.
Ben Fletcher had a much closer contest, although he was never headed and led by four shots with four ends remaining. He lost three of those and scraped in for a one-shot win, 17-16.
Tim Hancock won 11 of the first 14 ends of his match, including a five-shot haul on the ninth end, and led by 15 with seven ends remaining.
He won four of those and was a 27-7 winner.
– At Echuca Bowls Club it was a 21-shot loss for the Tongala Bulls, who now sit fourth and face second-ranked Deniliquin this weekend.
The 73-52 (2-14) loss came despite skip Brad Tinning managing to square his season with a third win from the opening six rounds.
With Peter Tinning, Sally Beach and Connor Trewren in tow he won by eight against highly regarded Echuca skip Stan Barker.
He lost five shots on the second end and trailed 2-10 after six ends. By collecting 13 shots on the next five ends, including a pair of four-shot wins, he led by four before another Barker surge squared the game at the halfway mark.
Barker then won six of the final eight ends to claim the two points 26-18.
Steve Hammond’s rink limped off the starting blocks, dropping 20 shots in the first eight ends to trail by 17. He never recovered and despite finishing with 10 end wins lost 16-32.
Glenn Fields had the shot bowl on nine ends of his game, but eight of those netted him just one shot and by the final siren he had lost the game 10-23.
– Tongala’s division two team has dropped to fourth on the ladder after losing by five shots to Echuca on Saturday.
The Bulls are now one of four teams with a 4-2 record, separated by just nine pennant points at the top of the table. On Saturday top team Echuca beat the Bulls 60-55, Danny O’Brien the only winning skip for Tongala.
He won by seven, but the six-shot loss of Phil Cooper (stepping into the role Noel West had been playing) and the six-shot loss of John Reidell meant the Bulls faced a second defeat for the season.
Three of the Bulls’ next four games are against teams below them on the ladder, which could allow them to climb back up the ladder - if results go as according to seedings.
– Stanhope is now breathing down the neck of the top four teams, picking up a third win for the season against second-bottom Deni RSL on Saturday.
Andrew Morris’ rink of Teena Harris, Ken Hoppner and Michael West were dominant, winning their rink 33-10 as the Stanhope team won overall 70-50 (14-2).
Jen Crilly won her rink by six and on the remaining rink Robert Armstrong was beaten 13-22.
Morris took five shots on the second end and by the completion of 13 ends had by seven shots. He didn’t drop an end from that point, winning all remaining eight ends to register a big win.
Crilly led 16-5 after claiming three shots on four of the opening nine ends. The margin was reduced to four five ends later, but she had shot on four of the final seven ends and won 24-18.
– In division four bowls Tongala sits second on the ladder after beating Echuca by six shots and Valley View has a chance to improve its second bottom status in the next three weeks.
The Graeme Topp led club has only beaten bottom team Mathoura/Echuca this season, but has played all of the top four teams.
Stanhope sits third in the eight-team division five competition, despite losing by 10 shots to fifth ranked Deni RSL on the weekend.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor