The bowls seasoned opened with the return of the McGilton and Barry shields at Trafalgar and Warragul on Saturday.
Traralgon were the worthy winners of the McGilton Shield over an unlucky Trafalgar, with Drouin finishing third and Newborough fourth.
In the Barry Shield, Boolarra was winner over Warragul, with Thorpdale third and Yinnar in fourth.
It is the first time the Strzelecki Bowls Region has opened its season with the pre-season round robin shields since COVID intervened a few years ago.
The McGilton Shield was held at Trafalgar between seven division one clubs along with Moe, who made up the eighth team. Each competing club had three teams of four players take to the greens.
Competition was fierce, with Traralgon and Trafalgar each winning six of the nine matches.
Going into the last round of matches after lunch, Trafalgar led the competition. They had won five matches to Traralgon's four, with a handy lead on shots if a countback was required.
Moe and Traralgon each won one of their first two matches in this round, leaving the final match between Vin McIlwain and his Traralgon rink of Tom Irvine, Ian Hilsley and Matt Eccles playing Nathan Cook and his Trafalgar rink of Peter Rosenboom, Mick Fleming and Tim Fraser.
After 10 ends, Cook's rink had their nose in front, leading by two shots. McIlwain's rink drew two shots on the 11th end to level the match and gained a further two shots on the last end. Traralgon gained a further two shots, giving Traralgon an overall two-shot victory over Trafalgar when all match results were in. Traralgon were declared the shield winners.
The Barry Shield was played at Warragul between the clubs not playing in the McGilton Shield. Every club played each other once.
Of the local teams, Warragul, Thorpdale, Yarragon and Neerim District all featured.
The shield was won by Boolarra with their rink of Joel Anderson (skip), Colin Brick, Jorma Takanen and Terry Parker defeating the Warragul rink of David Gatewood (skip), Des Stephens, Pat Hammond and Terry Moyle by one shot, 12-11. As each of these clubs had won their other games, it meant Boolarra were the shield winners.
Whilst the day was rather windy with rain threatening for much of play, it was a good start to the season.
Midweek pennant starts today (Tuesday), with Saturday pennant to follow this weekend.