Sport
14 February, 2026
Ruth pipped in championship defence
NORTH Central bowls playing area’s top titles for 2025-2026 season have headed to Donald.
The Donald Golf duo of Belinda Murray and Geoff Rigby took out the champion of champions events in Wedderburn on Sunday.
Belinda came back from a horror patch midway through the final against defending champion Ruth Hall (Wedderburn) in the 22nd end to eventually claim the ladies’ title by four shot. She reach the 25-point victory mark claiming one shot on the 29th end.
In the men’s final, Geoff had a close tussle throughout the match with Hunter Wingfield.
Hunter had been two shots up after the 21st end before Geoff took control, scoring eight shots over the next five ends while denying Hunter any shots. The final margin was 25-20.
Club champions contested the first round during the morning with semi-finals and the finals played in the afternoon.
Semi-finalists in the men’s event were St Arnaud’s Steve Zsigmond, Wycheproof’s Nick Coles, Hunter and Geoff.
In the ladies, Belinda, Ruth who won her first title last year, Charlton’s Lynne Southwell and Wycheproof’s Jeannie Grylls were in the final four.
Meanwhile, Wedderburn tuned up for its finals campaign in North Central bowls with a big win over Boort in Division 1 play last Saturday.
Wedderburn won 95-51 with all three rinks victorious. The rink of Robert Tonkin, Leon Holt, Andrew Caserta and skip Laurie Witham won by a whopping 25 shots, 35-10.
The other rinks won 33-17 and 27-24.
Victory saw Wedderburn finish third on the ladder, with an elimination clash against fourth-placed St Arnaud CC awaiting on Saturday.
The match will be played at the neutral venue of St Arnaud Bowling Club.
A win would see Wedderburn advance to a preliminary final against the loser of the Wycheproof-Donald Golf match, also at St Arnaud.
The two clubs split their meetings this season: Wedderburn won 75-54 in round four, but Country Club reversed the outcome 79-70 in round 11.
Boort finished the Division 1 season in second-last place, ahead of Charlton only on percentage after both teams won two matches for the season.
SEMI FINALS
DIVISION 1 - AT ST ARNAUD
Wedderburn v Country Club
Wycheproof V Donald Golf
DIVISION 2 - AT CHARLTON
St Arnaud v Country Club
Wycheproof v Wedderburn