After an opening round Goulburn Valley Playing Area loss to Shepparton Park and a tight defeat to Kyabram the previous weekend, Euroa secured its first win after outclassing East Shepparton on Saturday afternoon.
On its home greens, Euroa got off to a bright start thanks to skipper Shane Drysdale and his team.
Euroa won the first rink 26-13 in a dominant display.
The home side then backed up its efforts in the second rink, with lead David Cerini, second Barry Hatchman, third Marc Stevens and skipper Ken Sutcliffe dominating and winning the rink 23-8.
Up two rinks to none, Euroa had its eyes set on its first division one victory of the summer, however, the home side was in a similar position during its close loss to Kyabram.
The Easterners bounced back in the third rink to claim a 16-26 victory, with skipper Dane Gade leading the charge.
The fourth rink was tightly contested, with neither side willing to give an inch.
In the end, the two sides couldn’t be split as the rink ended in a 17-17 draw, handing Euroa the victory, 15-82 to 3-64.
Sutcliffe said he was pleased to see his side learn from the close loss to Kyabram in round two.
“We got close last week against Kyabram, we had two wins and a draw,” Sutcliffe said.
“We had two wins and a draw this time as well, but we got over the line, which was great.
“We were pretty happy at the end of it, they had three permit players from Numurkah Golf playing as well which strengthened them.
“To get over the top of them was really great.”
The spirit at Euroa Bowling Club was high following the side’s first victory, Sutcliffe said each team played their role across the four rinks.
“The two teams that won, won comfortably which gave us the overall points,” he said.
“Shane Drysdale’s side and the team I skippered we had strong wins, then there was the draw, then Bill Taylor’s side came back in their rink and only lost by 10 shots — that helped us.
“It was a combined effort.”
With their first victory under their belts, Sutcliffe and his platoon will head into this weekend’s match full of confidence.
Unfortunately for Euroa, the next two games are the hardest fixtures in Matheson Shield; Shepparton Golf and Tallygaroopna.
Sutcliffe said Euroa has a personal reason to perform well against Golf.
“(Golf and Tallygaroopna) are two of the strongest sides in the competition, so we just have to brace ourselves for that,” he said.
“We would like to do really well against (Shepp Golf) because they pinched one of our skippers last year, which certainly didn’t help us given we are on the weaker end of the eight teams in division one.
“We did beat Shepp Golf last year, but that doesn’t happen very often, not for Euroa anyway, it’s more of a once-in-a-decade type thing.”
Across the other division one greens, Shepparton Golf defeated Mooroopna 14-105 to 4-68, Tallygaroopna thumped Tatura-Hill Top 18-101 to 0-53 and Shepparton Park edged out Kyabram 16-76 to 2-67.
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