Drought-breaker: Katandra West achieved its first division one pennant title in season 2023-24.
Within the Goulburn Valley Playing Area and perhaps the greater Goulburn Murray Bowls Region, you typically know who your powerhouses are.
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At individual and club level there are standouts with a long history of success.
Katandra West, as successful as any side in the GMBR’s club divisions this season, is not often considered within this upper echelon — until now.
For a club that has maintained an underdog status throughout its history, with numbers that usually pale compared to the likes of GVPA mainstays Tallygaroopna and Shepparton Golf, these are new heights.
Even within the Murray Playing Area, Katandra West has dealt with bigger fish like Cobram and Numurkah Golf, well accustomed to sitting beneath those larger sides.
The underdog broke through this time around though.
Katandra West overcame a semi-final defeat to Numurkah Golf by powering past Wunghnu in the preliminary final before obtaining revenge — and a long-awaited division one pennant title — in the decider.
That was after claiming the midweek division two premiership earlier that week with a 16-shot win over Numurkah.
Scooping the pool: Katandra West celebrates its midweek division two premiership.
Still, West wasn’t yet done.
A third straight grand final victory over a Numurkah outfit came in Saturday’s division four match-up, completing a memorable hat-trick for a side previously considered a minnow.
Secretary Greg Barr is happy to lap it up.
“We’d never won a division one flag and, to be honest, we’ve never looked like it,” Barr said.
“We were fighting not to be relegated at the end of last season.
“We’re just a little club with no coach and no paid players, less than 25 active members, and I reckon 20 of them bowled on Saturday.
“We had the weight of expectation after finishing on top and we got flogged in the first final by Numurkah Golf.
“Our club has never won three flags in one year. It was a great result from a town so small it doesn’t even have a pub.”
There was plenty of high-calibre opposition on offer — Numurkah Golf’s Geoff Sutcliffe has represented Australia more than 30 times, while nobody has ever reached the heights of national or state bowls from Katandra West.
After pulling off another remarkable upset earlier this month there was plenty for the club to celebrate — this time against highly-fancied GVPA opposition.
“Normally GVPA smashes us in the regional event, but we managed to somehow beat guys like David Daws and Guy Madigan in the men's state triples,” Barr said.
“These are guys who are all accomplished bowlers; the irony of all this is that David started his lawn bowling at Katandra West.”
Indeed, Daws again stands opposite the club that gave him his start, with his Tallygaroopna side going toe-to-toe with the Murray premier in the regional playoff on Wednesday evening.
Katandra West got by with some help from its friends not on the greens, but off them, in the form of a helpful talk delivered by Shepparton Golf star Brad Orr as finals got serious.
Barr credits the words of wisdom for helping engineer the turnaround that, as it turns out, meant a lot more than numbers on the scoreboard.
"Kevin Gardner, we call him ‘Icy’, his family was able to get him out to a couple of the finals out at Berrigan,” Barr said.
“He’s had pancreatic cancer and the outlook is not good at all, but we were able to get an extra medal when we won and we just went around to present him with it.
“He’s been a member for probably 35 years. He was bowling less than 12 months ago and he’s done a lot of work.
“That drove us a fair bit and makes you appreciate that sometimes there’s more to bowls than a game; he’s been our number one support and driving force.”
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