Sunshine VRI pulled off a remarkable victory over neighbouring rivals Sunshine RSL in Bowls Victoria Pennant division 3, section 3 on Saturday, winning 86-70.
Missing several key players for health and travel reasons, VRI’s Eddie Foss admitted he expected RSL to win the match, but VRI took out three of four rinks to pick up 16 points to RSL’s two.
VRI had the biggest win of the afternoon, taking out one rink 35-16. Two other rinks saw 18-13 and 21-13 wins, while RSL’s only win was 25-12 in the fourth rink.
Foss said the unexpected win was the perfect way to kick off the season. “We had a team that wasn’t balanced; we’re a few players short with illness and people away,” he said. “You miss the experience and we’re not sure if they will come back to bowls.
“We had trouble fielding a second side and we know how strong and professional RSL are and we thought we might have a battle.
“But at the end of the day we got over the line reasonably easy, which was great. It was an excellent game and a very good all-round effort.”
But Foss warned of reading too much into the first-round result. “In the first hitout teams aren’t settled,” he said. “We put a team on the park and hoped to win, and we did. We expect RSL to do very well this season and we hope that we do as well.”
In other matches. Deer Park (D1S1) beat Montmorency 86-66, Sunshine City (D2S1) scored a 87-69 win over Yarraville-Footscray, Keilor (D2S2) suffered a narrow 72-76 loss to West Coburg. and division 4, section 1’s
St Albans beat Keilor’s second side 87-63.
Sunshine VRI is away to Werribee’s third team this Saturday, while Sunshine RSL hosts Footscray Park. Deer Park, looking for promotion to the premier division, is away to Preston/Reservoir.
