mmg.com.au

Wet weather and nail-biting results defined the first day of Goulburn Valley Bowls Division’s Champion of Champions at Shepparton Golf yesterday.

Shepparton Park’s Col Power, Stanhope’s Barry Williams, Shepparton Golf’s Rick Orchard and East Shepparton’s Paul Nichols are the four bowlers who will contest next week’s semi-finals after bowlers were slowly eliminated.

Orchard had arguably the toughest run to the final four because he had to play three matches yesterday.

Orchard and five other bowlers were allocated to round one matches, while the remaining 13 bowlers had a bye in the first round.

He defeated Rushworth’s Kevin Gilbert 25-18 before beating Hill Top’s Mick Hooper in the round-of-16, 25-23.

Orchard then met Colbinabbin’s Ramon Rathjen in the round-of-eight and won 25-18.

Merrigum’s Paul Trewren also played three matches yesterday.

He won his first and second round matches 25-24, before he was eliminated by Williams in the round-of-eight, 25-22.

Williams had beaten Avenel’s Alan White in round two, 25-19, while Nichols defeated Dookie’s Scott Greig 25-4 and Violet Town’s Tony Kingma 25-19 to progress to day two.

Power defeated Mooroopna’s Mark Ryan 25-24 in the second round, followed by victory against Euroa’s Ken Sutcliffe, 25-23, to make it to the semi-finals.

Eight of the 15 matches played yesterday were decided by five shots or less.

GVBD president Maurie Rowlands said the rain continued most of the day, but not enough to have the matches relocated and all the scheduled matches were completed.

‘‘It finally stopped raining an hour-and-a-half ago (about 4.30pm), but it was only light rain,’’ Rowlands said.

‘‘It didn’t affect the running surface or the green in any way at all, just perhaps a little bit of player discomfort.

‘‘It got a bit colder and a bit harder to hold the ball at times, they all had wet gear, but played it out in really good spirit.’’

The finals of the Champion of Champions will be played on Sunday at Shepparton Golf.

The semi-finals will begin at 9.30am and the final will be played at about noon.