At this time every year the competition is played in a different regional Victorian city or large town, and it was the turn of the Sunraysia Eight Ball Association to play host at the magnificent new sporting precinct in Mildura.
The tournament has four divisions with nine teams of seven players each, with five matches played from 9am on Saturday, and the final three on Sunday before the final four finalists are decided.
Kevin Campbell, Chris Burn, Neil Goudie and Rob Daly represent the Goldfields 8 Ball team in Division 4, while good friends Lionel Pevitt from Heywood, and D’Wayne Saunders and Adam Sonnet from Bendigo made up the rest of the side.
After the preliminary rounds the team was equal third with Geelong, but as the Goldfields team had been defeated by that side, they were deemed to have ended up in fourth place.
The finals format saw first play fourth and second play third, with both winners advancing to the grand final playoff.
This meant Goldfields were pitted against the local Sunraysia side which had finished clearly on top of the table after not losing a match.
In the semi-final the first to claim four frames would be declared the winner, with the grand final being a race to seven wins.
The Goldfields crew easily accounted for the hitherto unbeaten Sunraysia, four frames to one, and then performed even better in the grand final when they accounted for the Whipstick Miners, a team from Bendigo, seven frames to two.
This victory will now see them promoted to Division 3 for next February’s carnival in Bendigo.
~ Contributed by Rob Daly.
29°C