Finishing third, the Steamers were forced to run the gauntlet of all three other finals sides, and after dispatching Echuca and Tongala over the past two weekends, they faced up to minor premier Stanhope in the grand final on Saturday.
Stanhope had the early running on the rinks of Lockington Bowls Club, getting out to a small lead which by the midway point of the game was hovering around six to eight shots across the three rinks.
Moama kept plugging away, though, slowly drawing closer, and as the match drew towards its climax, a huge five-shot 18th end in Rod Werner’s rink erased the deficit.
The shots continued to fall the Steamers’ way, but Stanhope was hanging around, setting up a grandstand finish.
With one rink completed and the remaining two with just one end each to play, Moama led overall by just one shot.
Cheers and calls of ‘Steamers!’ erupted as it was confirmed that Moama had secured one shot in each of those remaining ends, resulting in a 57-54 championship win.
On the final scorecard, Werner’s rink was the best for Moama, 23-15, while one shot on the final end broke the deadlock in Geoffrey Beattie’s rink 21-20.
In the remaining rink, Stanhope’s Ben Fletcher skipped his side to victory 19-13 over Moama skip Robert Young.
It was a disappointing end for Stanhope, but the squad, including skips Fletcher, Gregory Fitzpatrick and Timothy Hancock, can take heart from an impressive overall campaign.
Steamers representative Stuart Whyte said his side was proud to have come through from the less favoured third seed.
“Not being in the top two was probably a bit of a disappointment for us, but you just have to dig in at that point then and work hard to get through and do what we do,” he said.
“The fact that we’ve had to come that way and win all three finals, I think it just actually makes it a little bit sweeter.
“Knocking off minor premiers (Stanhope), our local rivals (Echuca) and probably the best team in the competition in Tongala made it (better).
Whyte praised the strong Stanhope side, who brought the game down to the wire.
“Even at the end I was chatting to the green next to me and didn’t quite realise we’d got it,” he said.
“(It was a) very, very tight and incredible game against really good opposition.”
More than 100 players took part in the grand final day at Lockington Bowls Club, with the club’s hosting duties praised by Bendigo Campaspe Goldfields president Vickey Tierney and by many of the team representatives as they addressed the crowd.
Moama division one squad
Arthur Bailey, Benjamin Cottier, John Worledge, Geoffrey Beattie (skip)
Tony Hawley, Colin Hayes, Robyn Thomassen, Robert Young (skip)
Brian Davie, Stuart Whyte, Michael Linehan, Rodney Werner (skip)
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