Des Campbell is Kyabram’s only top 10 player in the division three Goulburn Valley Playing Area weekend pennant competition after six rounds.
Kyabram’s division one weekend pennant draw does not get any easier this weekend when it faces the last remaining member of the top five in the Goulburn Valley Playing Area’s top competition.
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It surprised everyone, on the back of losing 10 of its first-choice bowlers from last year, by starting the season with successive wins against Mooroopna (by four shots) and Euroa (by six shots).
However, since then Kyabram has lost four successive games to Shepparton Park (fourth), East Shepparton (fifth), second ranked Shepparton Golf and top team Tallygaroopna.
And this week it plays third ranked Tatura-Hill Top, which looks like improving on its fifth placed ranking last year.
Euroa and Mooroopna now the only teams below Kyabram on the win-loss ratio.
Kyabram is sixth with a 2-4 record, while the bottom two teams have won only one game apiece.
Good news is Kyabram faces those two teams again in back-to-back matches in rounds eight and nine — the final two rounds before Christmas on December 7 and 14.
And further good news, wins in those games could see the team improve by at least two rungs on its ranking as two teams (Shepparton Park and East Shepparton) are only half a win ahead of Kyabram on the ladder.
Not sure it this is a smile or a grimace on the face of Don Cook as his rink lost by 11 in its division three game on Saturday at Kyabram.
· Des Campbell is used to performing at an elite level, so his ranking inside the top 10 of the Goulburn Valley Playing Area’s division three weekend pennant competition shouldn’t be a surprise.
What is a shock it that aside from Campbell, the 10th seed in the division, there are no other Kyabram players ranked in the top 30.
Next best is Jackson Bailey, who has a 3-1 record and is ranked 31st, ahead of Terry Thomson.
Campbell is unbeaten from four appearances in division three, having won all three of his games as a third and his one game as a skip.
In that one game as skip he guided Robert Canute, Jackson and Peter Kendall to a 30-14 win against Shepparton Park, which sits four rungs ahead of Kyabram in second spot in the ladder.
Campbell is the seventh ranked third after six rounds of competition.
He has bowled third to Graham Woodcock in 31-13 and a pair of 20-18 wins.
His other game was in division one, his only loss for the year as third bowler for Mal Williams.
Les Dillon reacts to the final location of his bowl in the 20-shot loss to third ranked division three team Shepparton Golf on Saturday.
· A four-shot win for Kyabram’s division seven team on Saturday at Mooroopna Golf Bowls Club was the team’s sixth of the season and it leads the competition as the only undefeated team in the division.
The weekend’s four-shot win did, however, bring an end to a five-week winning streak for lead bowler William Hindson. Hindson’s rink drew 17-all with its Mooroopna Golf opposition.
Hindson still occupies top spot on the division’s player ladder, while his regular skip Murray Boswood is the fifth seed and Geoffery Hocking (sixth) is the other Kyabram player in the top 10.
Hocking is unbeaten this year in his four appearances in division seven.
