Stanhope has the chance to improve dramatically on its wooden spoon finish to last season’s Campaspe Playing Area division one weekend pennant bowls competition thanks to a draw that has it facing only two of last season’s finalists in the opening five weeks.
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The Lions won just three of their 14 games last season (two of those against top teams Tongala and Moama), but after a 2024-25 opening round game against perennial finalist Tongala three of their next four games are against non-finalists.
They have completed an off-season recruiting coup by having former players Brad Robinson and Ben Fletcher return to the club. They were both lead bowlers for Shepparton Golf in that club’s losing Goulburn Valley Playing Area Allan Matheson Shield grand final last season.
Fletcher won Shepparton Golf’s club championship last year.
Another Goulburn Valley division one bowler, Jamie Stokes, will also return to the club from Kyabram to make a big difference to the 2024-25 playing stocks.
CAMPASPE WEEKEND BOWLS: DIVISION ONE - THE FIRST TWO ROUNDS
Tongala (last year finished second)
October 12 at home v Stanhope
October 19 away v Rich River
Stanhope (last year finished eighth)
October 12 away v Tongala
October 19 at home v Deniliquin
Last year’s grand final: Mathoura d Tongala 62-55 (12-4).
Stanhope finished eighth on the ladder last season, its first since crossing to the Bendigo Campaspe Goldfields Association from the Goulburn Murray region.
They will be without Rob Ponton this season, who is one of several district bowlers switching to GV playing area club Mooroopna this season.
Its opening game of the season, on October 12, is against a team that it beat by 19 shots in the opening round of last season. When the teams met again in round eight it was a far different story, Tongala winning all three rinks and finishing with a 40-shot victory.
Stanhope’s other two wins came against Echuca (by six shots) in round four and, in another shock, against top team Moama (by 19 shots) in round nine.
Between rounds two and five in 2024-25 the Stanhope team will face fourth placed Deniliquin, before confronting Echuca, Rochester and Rich River - the other three teams that fished outside the finals last season.
In round six Stanhope will face reigning premier Mathoura, which came from third on the ladder to win the title by beating Deniliquin and Moama in the lead up to a grand final where they beat Tongala by seven shots.
That grand final replay will be played in round five (on November 9) in a perfectly balanced competition where every team plays each other twice - on their home rink and away.
Stanhope’s bottom ranking in the competition is reinforced by the fact its highest ranked player for the season was Robert Armstrong (who had the 58th best record in the Campaspe Playing Area for 2023-24).
Armstrong only played nine games , winning five of those, with Hayley Hancock’s 5-6 win/loss record and the 5-9 return of John Patterson the next best on the player ladder for last season.
Patterson won another Stanhope club championship last year (now almost in double figures), beating John Gibbs in the final.
Patterson has anointed new bowler George Maxwell as a future star of the Campaspe Playing Area, in only his second year of bowls.
Hayley Hancock was Stanhope’s top ranked lead bowler (15th in the competition), with Patterson ranked 28th. He played only five of his 14 games as a lead.
Wade Summers was Stanhope’s top ranked second (17th overall), with Patterson 24th on that list (a 3-6 win/loss record as a second).
Armstrong played six games as a third, winning half of those and finishing as the 21st ranked third. Jorja Ponton (26th) and Peter Myers (28th) were the Lions next best thirds.
Robert Ponton, who won five of his 12 games as skip, finished 16th on the list of Campaspe Playing Area skips. He was three rungs ahead of Greg Fitzpatrick, who won four and drew one of his 14 games.
Barry Fletcher skipped on six occasions, next best as the 22nd ranked skip.
Stanhope will be contesting divisions one, two, four and five on Saturday and is now in division one and three for the midweek Campaspe competitions.
– Tongala will enter the new season with two new skips, but has also lost a couple of its most consistent players of recent seasons.
The Bulls will have to wait until round five for a chance to exact revenge on the team that stopped it from completing a hat-trick of Campaspe Playing Area division one bowls premierships.
Steve Hammond has returned to the club from Cobden and Glenn Fields has joined the club from Richmond Union. Tongala will be without David Hester (who has returned home to Numurkah) and Jarryd Tinning, who is playing at Tatura-Hill Top.
Tongala will also be strengthened by the inclusion of Connor Trewren from Shepparton Golf (and formerly Kyabram), along with Drysdale bowler Dale Hateley.
The Bulls played in a third straight grand final last year, but Mathoura’s momentum through the latter stages of the season allowed it to secure an upset win in the premiership play-off.
In 2023-24 Tongala lost three of its opening four games, including to a pair of teams that eventually missed the finals. It lost only twice more in the next 10 weeks, finishing second on the ladder on the back of some outstanding seasons.
Four Tongala players - John Riedell, Brad and Barry Tinning, and David Hester - were the four top bowlers for the Campaspe PA’s top division.
Riedell, the top ranked individual for last season, won eight games as a second (losing just one) and had a 3-1 record as a third.
As a lead Hester won all three of his games, then has a 7-3 win/loss record as a third.
Brad Tinning finished with a 11-2 record as was the top skip for the year, marginally ahead of teammate Matthew Liverton (9-4 record).
Barry Tinning was unbeaten as a third, winning four games, but was the seventh ranked skip with a 7-3 win/loss return.
Barry Tinning and Hester played most of last season together, while Riedell was on the same rink as Brad Tinning.
Tongala plays its first practice match this weekend against Tatura-Hill Top, still with a strong Tinning representation with Geoff (now 88-years-old) still playing at the top level.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor