A second straight win to start the Campaspe Playing Area’s division one pennant season has Stanhope sitting second on the ladder as one of only two unbeaten teams.
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Stanhope finished last season on the bottom rung of the ladder in its return season, but has recruited strongly and sits alongside Moama Steamers on top of the table.
It opened the season with a 24-shot win against Tongala when it won all four rinks and sent a warning shot across the bows of the other six teams in the competition.
On Saturday it beat another of the 2023-24 finalist, Deniliquin, by 10 shots on the back of a dominant rink win by Tim Hancock.
Hancock’s 21-shot win, in tandem with Teena Harris, Jono Thorne and Jamie Stokes, cancelled out the 12-shot loss of gun recruit Ben Fletcher.
On the remaining rink Greg Fitzpatrick won by a shot to give Stanhope a 63-53 (14-2) win.
Hancock, who lost all three games as a skip last season and missed several weeks of competition, now has two wins in as many weeks.
He had shot on 13 of the opening 15 ends and led the game by 22 shots with six ends remaining.
Despite dropping five shots on the final two rinks he was a 30-9 victor, backing up the four-shot round one win against Glenn Fields.
Fitzpatrick led 7-2 after three ends of his game, but dropped seven of the next 10 ends to suddenly trail by four.
He regained the lead, but in a see-saw battle trailed by one with an end to play — before securing two shots and the rink victory.
Fletcher trailed by two shots after 11 ends of his game, but lost nine of the final 12 ends to lose 13-25.
Stanhope now faces Echuca in round three, which lost by two shots to top team Moama Steamers in week one and then backed up with a win against Rochester on Saturday.
Stanhope made a couple of changes to its round one team, with recruit Brad Robinson and the fast-improving Jorge Maxwell missing.
· Tongala returned to the division one weekend pennant winners’ list with a three-shot win against Rich River.
After losing to Stanhope in the opening week of competition, it was hardly a convincing win as the Bulls lost two of the three rinks.
Eventually the team won the match 54-51 (12-4), but remains outside the top four after two games.
Glenn Fields’ eight-shot win, with Sally Beach, Steve and Barry Tinning in support, was enough to influence the overall result.
Fields lost the first three ends, but won 13 of the remaining 18 ends for a 19-11 win.
Brad Tinning, arguably the best skip in the competition for the past three seasons, lost for a second straight week and Steve Hammond went down by one shot on the remaining rink.
Hammond led by six shots with four ends remaining, but dropped eight shots on the next three ends to surrender the match.
Brad Tinning led 13-3 after nine ends, but dropped the next eight ends (including a six-shot loss on the 15th end) and trailed by six.
He never recovered and lost by four, 17-21.
· Andrew Morris’ seven-shot win gave Stanhope’s division two team its first win of the season, despite losing the remaining two rinks to Deniliquin.
Morris, Tom Young, Steve Hawkes and Kenneth Hoppner won 26-19, coming from three shots down after 14 ends to win the seven remaining ends of the afternoon.
The win gave Stanhope a three-shot win, 60-57 (12-4), with Jen Crilly losing by three and Barry Williams by one shot in the remaining matches.
Crilly lost six of the opening seven ends of her game and never recovered, despite winning two of the final three ends to make it a three-shot difference in the end.
Williams trailed by seven after the first four ends of his game, but secured five shots on the fifth end and four ends later led by four.
He dropped the next four ends, but recovered again to square the game with three ends to play.
In a tight game he lost two of those to go down by a shot.
Tongala sits second on the division two ladder after winning for a second straight week on the back of a win by former Kyabram star Connor Trewren.
Trewren, a proven skip at the top level, led his rink to a five-shot win and will be pushing for promotion next week on the back of that result.
Both the remaining rinks were draws, Kelvin Walsh and Noel West both taking a point in the 57-52 (14-2) Tongala win.
Walsh and West were round one winners in Tongala’s eight-shot win.
· Stanhope and Tongala notched wins in division four, the latter on the back of another Beth Vistarini win to sit on top of the ladder after two weeks.
Vistarini won by three, while Robert Hosking won by eight and Peter Kesson by one in the 71-59 (16-nil) win.
Stanhope sits third on the ladder despite losing to Tongala in round win, having rebounded with a 63-47 (16-nil) win against Lockington on Saturday.
Anthony Trist’s rink of Shirlene Hislop, Sharon Donnell and Michael West were the stars, winning 26-18 and supported by wins by Geoff Mulcahy and Peter Harris.
· Stanhope lost its division five game against Lockington by two shots after vastly different results on the two rinks.
Ian Douglas won by 11 shots, but Hans Schmidt lost his match by 13 and Stanhope lost overall 39-37.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor