mmg.com.au

Shepparton claimed the 2013 Victorian Country Cup at Star Bowl on Monday off the back of its women’s team’s dominant performance across the three-day tournament.

Shepparton finished third overall to Geelong at last year’s event in Warrnambool, but the seven-man, seven-woman team capitalised on the home centre advantage to win the cup with Latrobe Valley in second and Geelong third overall.

Shepparton’s women’s team made it a hat-trick after winning the women’s division for the third year running with 90 points, 18 points ahead of Sunraysia with 72.

The men’s side finished fourth, but there was only three-and a-half points between Shepparton in fourth (69 points) and Colac’s winning men’s team (73 points).

The two results combined gave Shepparton an overall score of 159, 14 points ahead of runner-up Latrobe Valley with 145.

Two Shepparton players were also named in the All-Stars team, which recognised the five male and five female players with the best averages across the three days.

Kelly Jones finished with a 192 average, with a best game of 234, while Samara Murphy had a 189 average and a best game of 222.

Shepparton took on teams from Sunraysia, Wodonga, Warrnambool, Geelong, Bendigo, Colac, Latrobe Valley, Albury and Ballarat.

Five players from each team go head-to-head in a game with one point awarded for each individual win and two points awarded to the team with the highest pin score overall for the game.

Shepparton played each team twice and the women’s campaign hit a rocky start with a 0-7 loss in the opening round against Sunraysia.

The team recovered to win 15 of its remaining 17 rounds, including a 6-1 win against Sunraysia in their second meeting.

Its other losses were to Latrobe Valley, 0-7, in round 16 and a 3-4 loss to Ballarat in the final round.

Shepparton’s men had mixed performances across the three days, but finished the tournament with back-to-back wins against Ballarat and Latrobe Valley.

Star Bowl manager and tournament director Simon Brooks said the Shepparton team was ‘‘very, very excited’’ about the overall win.

‘‘That was the goal; it’s not just about individual divisions,’’ Brooks said.

‘‘It’s also about the association as well overall, so they were pretty rapt to win that.’’

He said the tournament ran smoothly.

‘‘It was well supported by the public because we averaged 300 spectators in the Bowl for the whole three days. It was just fantastic,’’ he said.