State Fours Championships await Kyabram

David Cartwright was ‘‘over the moon’’ after winning the regional final of the State Fours at Alexandra yesterday

David Cartwright was ‘‘over the moon’’ after winning the regional final of the State Fours at Alexandra yesterday.

The Kyabram skipper and his teammates Greg Shilling, Darren Boswood and Russell Locke are through to the state championships after winning the Central Goulburn Murray Regional Fours final.

The Goulburn Valley Bowls Division state fours winners faced the mammoth task of defeating Central Bowls Division’s Alexandra on its own rink in the best-of-18-ends final, but was up to the challenge with a 21-13 win.

Shepparton Park’s champion fours team of Di Hands, Cathy Dudley, Brenda Brodie and Kate Bush were not quite able to match the result, losing 16-19 to CBD’s Seymour in the final.

GVBD’s men’s side played Murray Bowls Division’s champion Cobram in the semi-final yesterday morning and Kyabram won 20-8.

Alexandra went straight into the final and initially held the upper hand against its opponents, but Cartwright believed the camaraderie between the Kyabram teammates got them through.

‘‘It’s even better when you bowl with blokes you enjoy bowling with. You really enjoy their company. Everyone is fighting for each other,’’ Cartwright said.

‘‘We were down and instead of dropping the bundle we all tried a little bit harder.

‘‘We had better heads than they did, but they got a few good results and it went their way.

‘‘I said to Greg, ‘We’re bowling too well not to come good’, and then we picked up a couple of numbers and we won the last six ends straight I think.’’

Cartwright said the conditions on the green were windy, so it became about which side could keep its cool.

‘‘If you had bowls at the head you were going to get a result and early on we weren’t getting them, but towards the end of the game we had more bowls at the head and they were missing,’’ he said.

Cartwright thanked the GVBD supporters who went to watch and said it was good to have them there when facing the home side.

GVBD’s fours side from Shepparton Park, skippered by Hands, was also drawn to go straight into the final and Hands said it was not a disadvantage because the team rolled up for about 45 minutes before the match.

The Parkers let slip five shots at about the 15th end, which was critical in an otherwise tight match.

‘‘We had a bad end about three ends from the finish, until then we were up, and did a five and never quite recovered,’’ Hands said.

‘‘It was very windy and it was a bit difficult to manage the wind. It was a tight game either way and then we just had one shabby end.’’

Kyabram will represent the Central Goulburn Murray region at the State Championships in Bendigo in April.