Bowls switch

Kyabram Bowls Club was last a member in the Campaspe association in 1976.

Current Kyabram Bowls Club president Chris Preddy, a 50-year veteran with the club, said travel was the main trigger for the move.

‘‘Our division three, five and seven pennant teams had to travel to Eildon, Alexandra and Yea to play in the recent season and a lot of members, particularly the older ones, weren’t happy with that,’’ he said.

‘‘One trip took nine hours; most people don’t even work that long in a day,’’ he said.

Preddy said moves by Bowls Victoria for venues for Kyabram east and south east of Kyabram to play pennant hadn’t been accepted well by his members in recent years.

‘‘There has been several major changes in bowls areas in northern and central Victoria over recent years and geographically they haven’t been good for our club,’’ he said.

‘‘I attended last week’s meeting of our members to vote on a switch with a neutral view to see what unfolded and agreed with what the majority of members wanted.

‘‘Those who were against the move felt they had to show some loyalty to where they had played most of their bowling life and that’s understandable, too.

‘‘In the Campaspe Bowls Association the furtherest we now will have to travel is Deniliquin and that is not a hard drive because its flat terrain all the way.’’

Preddy said he had a call from Stanhope Bowls Club president Graham Nurse whose club made the shift from the GV Playing Area to the Campaspe association last season and was happy with the how it had been received in its new association.

Bendigo Campaspe Goldfields Bowls Region has accepted Kyabram’s proposal and the move now only requires the approval of Bowls Victoria, which isn’t expected to stand in the way of the transition.

BCGBR president Vicky Tierney said the region was happy to welcome Kyabram into the fold for 2025-26.

“It'll be wonderful,” she said.

“We had Stanhope come in two years ago and they love it, they think it's fantastic.

“To have Kyabram, who finished third in division one over there (in the GVPA), it'll be great.”

Kyabram was keen to make the move, regardless of where it slotted in to Campaspe Playing Area’s division structure, but Tierney said she expected a club of Ky’s quality would join division one immediately, expanding the top grade to nine teams, at least in the short term.

She also flagged the possibility of introducing a promotion and relegation system to Campaspe Playing Area to potentially readjust the league in future seasons.

“The first year, probably, we’ll play with nine and then maybe two will drop down and then promotion/relegation will bring someone up from below,” she said.

“Campaspe don't currently have promotion/relegation, but we do in Bendigo, and it's something that probably needs to be considered; we've already talked about it.

“For the first year, it'll probably mean nine (teams) just until we figure out how strong (Kyabram) are.”