Teams from Chalambar Golf and Warracknabeal bowls clubs will travel to Moama for next month’s Bowls Victoria Champion of State Pennant tournament after being crowned as Wimmera region champions.

Chalambar was victorious at Sunday’s Wimmera Bowls Region weekend pennant finals in Wycheproof after three hard-fought rounds of play.

The finals pitted the champions of each of the Wimmera’s four playing areas against each other, with Chalambar representing the Grampians playing area, St Arnaud representing North Central, Warracknabeal Golf representing North Wimmera and Nhill as the Wimmera champion.

Chalambar was dealt a setback in the first match of the round-robin tournament, losing to Warracknabeal Golf in a thrillingly close contest.

Warracknabeal Golf’s team of Barry Holland, Gary Bellis, Russell Miller and skipper Warren Perris defeated Chalambar’s Hans Holz, Michael Jennings, Tony Carra and skipper Shane Todd 16-10 in the first rink, with Chalambar’s Garry Todd, Bill Waterson, Grant Seeary and skipper Jess Austin fighting for a 12-all draw in the second rink.

Chalambar won the final rink 13-9 thanks to the efforts of Michael Franklin, Richard Harricks, Mark Griffiths and skipper Chris Young, but lost the match overall by just two shots, 37-35. 

The Ararat-based club rebounded to defeat Nhill in the second round, again tying one rink, winning one and losing one, but winning 48-38 on shots.

Entering the final round Chalambar required a win and a Warracknabeal Golf loss and received both, as it beat St Arnaud 2-52 to 1-40 and Nhill downed Warracknabeal Golf 2-43 to 1-37.

Both Chalambar and Warracknabeal Golf finished with two wins and a loss, but Chalambar’s superior score differential saw it named the Wimmera Bowls Region weekend champion.

The midweek pennant finals at Dimboola last week were more lopsided, with Warracknabeal thoroughly outpacing the other division champions Donald Golf, Sunnyside and Ararat as it recorded a huge score differential of 57.

Both clubs punched their ticket to the Champion of State Pennant tournament in Moama from April 26 to 29, pitting the champions of Bowls Victoria’s 11 country regions against each other and a combined metropolitan side for the state championship in both weekend and midweek competitions.

Bowls Victoria also announced Stawell’s Amy Hodgetts will represent country Victoria next month as part of a city versus country series.

Hodgetts is one of 16 women picked to represent country Victoria in the series, which will be played in Bendigo on April 12 and 13.

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