Kyabram fights way into grand final

By Rohan Aldous

Mar 13, 2023

Match winner: A six-shot win by Kyabram skip David Cartwright was a key to the come-from-behind win of his team in the Allan Matheson Shield preliminary final against Tallygaroopna. Kyabram will now play Shepparton Golf in this weekend’s division one GV pennant grand final at Stanhope. Photo by Megan Fisher

Kyabram came from the clouds in Saturday’s Goulburn Valley lawn bowls division one preliminary final to win a place in the competition’s grand final this weekend.

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Across all four rinks the final 20 ends saw Kyabram produce a 26-13 result to hit the line hard against Tallygaroopna and send shivers down the spine of grand final opponent Shepparton Golf.

Kyabram is expected to make only one change to the preliminary final team that scraped home in a thrilling pennant preliminary final at Shepparton Golf Bowling Club on Saturday.

The division one and two grand finals, in which Kyabram has dual representation, will be contested on Saturday (March 18) at Stanhope Bowling Club.

Paul McInnes is expected to replace Rob Sceney in Geoff Beattie’s team after Kyabram won its way into the grand final with an 89-87 win at the weekend against Tallygaroopna.

Kyabram came from a long way back, Geoff Beattie and Glenn Fields significantly closing the margins on their opposition in the final five ends of their matches.

Fields charged home with wins on four of the final five ends, having trailed by 10 shots before the late surge that reduced that losing margin to four.

Beattie was in exactly the same situation, trailing by 10 shots with five ends remaining. He won four of those, including a five-shot haul on the 22nd end, to eventually lose by just two shots.

Wins to Cartwright and Reiner on the remaining rinks secured the overall win and a place in the grand final.

Kyabram will contest four grand finals this weekend, both the division one and two teams contesting the end of season title play-off at Stanhope on Saturday.

Kyabram’s division four and six teams will contest their grand finals at Shepparton Park Bowling Club.

David Cartwright was the biggest winner for Kyabram in the narrow preliminary final win.

He combined with Robert Anset, Charlie Boswood and son, Joshua Cartwright, for a six-shot win. That result and Brett Reiner’s two-shot win cancelled the combined six-shot losses of Beattie and Fields.

David Cartwright led by 10 shots with three ends remaining, but dropped four shots on the second last end to bring Tallygaroopna back into contention.

Reiner’s two-shot win came after he trailed by three shots with four ends remaining. He won three of those, picking up seven shots, to secure the rink win.

In round four this season Kyabram won on three rinks, but walked away with a four-shot loss to Shepparton Golf.

David Cartwright lost to Brett Foley by 16 shots in that match, but Reiner beat Wayne Dagger, Connor Trewen had a three-shot win against Alan Dove and Beattie beat John Gribble.

When the teams met for the second time this season, in round one, Kyabram was an eight-shot winner on the three rink wins from Cartwright, Reiner and Glenn Fields.

Beattie lost on his rink to Brett Foley, who is the leading skip this season with a 10-1 win/loss record and one draw.

Shepparton Golf has six of the top 10 ranked players this season in the Goulburn Valley playing area’s top division, while only Kyabram’s Trewen is ranked inside the top 10 — sixth overall.

Trewren has a 10-3 win/loss record, having started the season in a blaze of glory as a skipper before settling into the third role for Reiner.

Jacob Cartwright (ranked 18th overall in GV division one) and Reiner (19th seed) are the next best Kyabram bowlers this season.

– Kyabram will contest the division two grand final at Stanhope against Euroa, having lost only one game for the season.

The teams round two match was washed out, but later in the year Kyabram was a 16-shot winner and will go into the game as a warm favourite.

In the division four grand final, Kyabram will contest the decider with top of the ladder team Seymour VRI — at Shepparton Park Bowling Club.

Kyabram won the last meeting between the pair by two shots, 90-88, having lost in the opening round to VRI by 12 shots.

Kyabram’s fourth grand final representative will also play at Shepparton Park, in the division six grand final against Yea.

The teams played in the second last round of the season and played a sensational tie. Kyabram won the match between the pair earlier in the year by six shots.