Trafalgar Bowls Club represented Strzelecki Bowls Region in the Champion of State Midweek Pennant held at Moama Bowls Club recently.
There were 12 teams, Deer Park representing the Metropolitan Melbourne area and the winners from each of the eleven country regions within Victoria.
Trafalgar was in section two comprising Bendigo East, Kyneton, Wangaratta, Murray Downs and Ocean Grove with three games on Monday and a further two on Tuesday followed by the final between the winners of section one and two.
The first match was a nail-biter with Bendigo East defeating Trafalgar by four shots with a score of 40-44 after Trafalgar held an early lead before losing six shots in one end, allowing Bendigo East to gain a lead which they did not relinquish.
After three games of 15 live ends Matt Schreyer defeated Robert Clough, Ian Miles lost to James McGillivray 14-15 and Adam Proctor lost to Daryl Rowley 10-16.
Game two was against Kyneton and Matt Schreyer and his rink of Wayne Hurst, Heather Taylor and David Cook defeated Conrad Dawson 14-10, Adam Proctor drew 13-13 with Greg Podesta and Ian Miles narrowly lost 11-12 to Anthony Mathison, leaving Trafalgar the winners by three shots.
Game three was against Wangaratta with Adam Proctor and his rink of Sue Robinson, Helen Robertson and Paul Dawson defeating Chris Randell 24- 10 and Ian Miles and his rink of Shirley Melsen, Noel Rubenstein and Matt Ogilvie beating Maurice Braden 16-8. Matt Schreyer lost to Phillip Davern 9-15.
Trafalgar won 49-33 and at the end of day one were narrowly top of the ladder with all teams having lost at least one match.
Game four was against the winless Murray Downs and Trafalgar were competitive early but fell away over the last few ends with Ian Miles losing to Garry McCaig 13-18, Matt Schreyer losing to Peter Furnell 10-17 and Matt Schreyer losing to Kevin Rowe 13-20 leaving Murray Downs the winners 55-36.
The upsets continued in the other matches with Ocean Grove and Bendigo East drawing with Bendigo East and Wangaratta defeating Kyneton.
Game five was against Ocean Grove who were now the top team and Ian Miles and his team of Pat Tatterson, Noel Rubenstein and Matt Ogilvie defeated Tyson Cromie 17-9, Matt Schreyer drew 12-12 with Rod Brehaut and Adam Proctor lost to Alan Drury 11-13 leaving Trafalgar the winners by six shots 40-34.
With three wins Trafalgar finished second on the points table, 10 shots behind Kyneton who also had three wins and narrowly ahead of both Ocean Grove and Bendigo East who each had two wins and a draw. Wangaratta and Murray Downs each had two wins.
This was the most competitive section over the many years of this competition with five sides in contention for a win at the start of the last game.
Kyneton went on to lose to Tallygaroopna 46-48 in the final to complete a very competitive Champion of Midweek Pennant series.