1982
Kyabram apprentice jockey Ron Anderson and his father, Ron Senior, ran the quinella in a 1500m Improvers race at Tatura.
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The pair were captured by the Free Press camera returning to scale, Ron Jr winning the race on the Ernie Saines-trained Delville Green, a horse that had been won in a raffle.
Delville Green had provided the young Kyabram apprentice with his first race win only a month or so earlier — at Mansfield on Boxing Day.
The horse won the race by five lengths at odds of 5-1, beating 12-1 shot Pure Gem, with Ron Sr on board.
Kyabram readers were celebrating the result, the horse known in the stable as “Gus” having been featured in the sports pages of a 1981 Free Press edition when it guided Ron Jr to his first victory as a jockey.
• Kyabram Football Club announced it had lured one of its ex-VFL players back to play for the Bombers.
Maurie Wingate, who had played 39 games for Melbourne from 1976 to midway through the 1981 season, informed Kyabram president John Davy he would rejoin the club.
The law clerk was a member of the Shepparton side that finished runner-up to Seymour for the GVL premiership in 1981.
Wingate had signed with Shepparton on the proviso that he would be cleared to Kyabram whenever he requested.
He last played with Kyabram as a 17-year-old with Peter Lyon’s 1975 Kyabram premiership team and was one of the outstanding players on the ground in the grand final.
New Bombers coach Chris Salter was also a member of that 1975 team and had followed Wingate’s rise through the ranks of St Augustine’s junior teams and Kyabram thirds.
• Champion Kyabram cyclist Stephen Pate (only last week rated by Gus Underwood as Kyabram’s best ever sportsperson) beat one of Australia’s most well-known track cyclists at Northcote Velodrome.
While Pate finished second to Max Rainsford in the special sprint derby, he did beat Olympian Kendrick Tucker from Queensland.
Although still a junior, he beat the man rated by many as the best rider in the world for his age: Glen Clark.
Pate was on track for the state titles, entered in four different disciplines. Only two weeks earlier, Pate had won three Victorian country titles at the Shepparton Velodrome, having just turned 18.
1992
Eleven-year-old Kyabram croquet player Trevor Bassett offered a sign of things to come when he won the Division Four title of the Australia Day tournament at Goulburn Valley Croquet Association’s headquarters in Shepparton.
The performance of the primary school student at the Australia Day event attracted lavish praise from former Australian croquet champion Grace Edwards.
In the Free Press of the day, she described Trevor as “having all the grace and expertise of a seasoned adult player”.
Trevor and his big brother, 13-year-old Craig, were playing in the same event.
• Kyabram football’s hopes for 1992 rested with four men — reserves coach Jamie Munro, under-18 coach Mick Ryan, assistant coach Chris Stuhldreier and coach Des Campbell.
Campbell had announced a tough new training regime, which would see several potential senior players on a four-night-a-week schedule.
Nearly 50 players turned out for the club’s first session, including several new recruits.
• A matter of centimetres cost Tongala pig farmer and harness racing trainer Peter Horsby $20,000.
Hornsby trained and drove Random Height to second place in the $40,000 final of the Australian Trotters Championship.
The five-year-old mare was on track for the Inter Dominion Trotters Handicap in less than a month at Moonee Valley.
2002
• Kyabram won its third Northern Rivers region title in the McPherson Shield cricket competition when class batters Rohan Larkin and Brad Campbell combined with the experienced Paul Ranson to score the winning runs.
Having been beaten by Bendigo a week earlier it was a full-strength Kyabram team that faced the same opposition for the final.
Former state player Larkin blasted an unbeaten 92, continuing the work of opener Ranson (59).
Larkin hit 213 boundaries and a six, then was supported by an unbeaten 42 from Campbell.
All-rounder Haig Varcoe had been ruled out of the match after injuring his back in the warm-up, but David Newman, Ranson and Campbell led the Jon Varcoe-captained team to victory.
• Champion lawn bowler Jesse Eva successfully defended her under-18 girls’ singles title, the 17-year-old blitzing her Bacchus Marsh opponent in the final.
The Year 12 McGuire College student won her semi-final 25-6 and then allowed her opponent just five shots in the final.
Her victory was a sign of things to come for the next decade, as Goulburn Valley underage lawn bowlers began their domination of state events.
2012
Kyabram swimmer Celeste Reid dominated the Goulburn Valley Swimming Championships at Shepparton, the 16-year-old winning 11 individual and two relay medals.
Her next stop was the country Victorian championships at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, having won the 400m open freestyle, the 100m butterfly and 200m freestyle events.
• David Newman guided Fire Brigade to the Kyabram District Cricket Association’s T20 title with a win under lights against Cooma.
Fire Brigade needed six runs off the last over to reel in Cooma’s 7-115, and Newman hit the first and third deliveries to the boundary.
He finished not out 37, leading his team to victory against the plucky Cooma, which had Jack Stone Medallist Tom Stone top-scoring with 34.
Zac Cerrone and Steve Thomson were also good for the premier team, while Mitch and Liam Barrett took five wickets for Cooma.
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