1979
Kyabram Apex Club’s much sought after Sportstar of the Year award was gathering momentum as three more candidates to take home the treasured title were announced.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Verteran cyclist Bob Pate, who was on the comeback trail after a break of 15 years, was named the sportstar for December.
Lancaster all-round sportstar Gavin Napier was also nominated, as was swim star Barbara Murphy.
Pat, now 39, was one of Kyabram Cycle Club’s members when it went into recess a decade and a half earlier, but had recently won several events from the backmarker position.
Napier was the top run-maker for the Kyabram Cricket Association in the junior country week series and although only 14-years-old was already opening the batting for Lancaster’s A grade team.
A year earlier he had won the Manton Medal for the best player in the Kyabram’s Under 13 football competition and was the top run maker for the GV schoolboys cricket team.
Murphy won five gold medals in the recent GV swimming titles and all were in the field from which a winner was about to be announced - in April.
1989
The field was finalised for the Kyabram Apex Club’s 1988-89 Sportstar of the Year Award, following the announcement of the past five winners.
October’s title went to Undera King of the Mountain Jim Russell, who had won the Wycheproof event title for the previous four years.
He completed the course in five minutes and two seconds in 1988, scaling the 43 metre high mountain.
Stanhope motorcyclist Daryl Emmett was November’s winner, having just won the Victorian Endurance 125cc expert class title.
Kyabram’s star croquet player, Ken Boal, won the December title after being selected in the Victorian team, to compete in the national titles.
Tongala shooter Steve Atkins and Kyabram swimmer Troy Hudgson were joint winners for January, Atkins for his Commonwealth Double Rise Championship win on New Year’s Day and his selection in the national team.
Hudgson won the state 200 metre backstroke championship and a silver medal in the 200 metres butterfly.
Cricket run-making machine Matt McMaster-Smith was the February winner after he was selected to captain the Kleenex Country Superteam and selected in a Victorian Under 21 team.
He scored a blazing 164 for the Kleenex Superteam at Kyabram in the state competition.
Other winners to contest the title were Geoff Cameron and Geoff Tinning (lawn bowls), Jamie Underwood and Jason Lowe (small bore shooting), Mandy Rathbone (rowing) and Adele Blamey/Adele Smith/Katie Lunn/Christle Vanderburgt (swimming), Brett Johnson (running), Rebecca Elborough (netball), Kevin Bell (running) and Stephen Sharp (football).
– Lancaster-Wyuna all-rounder Russ Napier made it a family affair when he won the award his brother, Gavin, had won 12 months earlier - the KDCA A grade Cricketer of the Year.
He won the award ahead of Fire Brigade champion Wayne Thomas and Girgarre batsman Jeff Turpin was third.
Last year’s winner, and brother of the new champion cricket, Gavin Napier finished fourth.
Cooma all-rounder Dale Wise won the A Reserve title ahead of Bruce Andrews from Merrigum, while the B grade award went to Dhurringile’s Ken Mills. That was double the total of his nearest rival, KDCA chief Gus Underwood, who was runner-up.
Filling the minor placings were Stanhope pair Grant Sloan and Noel Gray.
1999
Kyabram’s Graeme Chalker coached Fire Brigade Under 16 cricket side wrote another chapter in the local sports record books when they won their ninth premiership in the last 11 years.
Opposition coach, Kyabram’s Rob Asplin, labelled star all-rounder Paul Newman as the difference between the two sides after he had scored an unbeaten half century.
He and Michael Wells opened the batting for Fire Brigade, while number three batter David Kelly was also a hero, being forced to retire at one stage after being struck on the helmet. He returned to score 27.
Andrew Kent scored the winning runs for Fire Brigade, while promising first year player Josh Dicketts was the Kyabram team’s most successful bowler with three wickets.
Brendan White and Kyabram captain Dean Patt were the only players to score more than 20 in the Kyabram innings, with Matt Finn and Brett Andrews both taking two wickets.
– In other cricket news Nathalia star David Earl wrote himself into KDCA record books with a 28 boundary and two six total of 130 not out against Central Gippsland in a Kyabram association win at Melbourne Country Week.
Ben Landley and Andrew Elborough helped the Kyabram team post a massive 3-272, then Scott hanson and Marcus Lancaster both took two wickets as they dismissed their opposition for 201.
– A perimeter fence was placed around Brose Oval as part of the Tongala Recreation Reserves Committee program for improved facilities.
The fence was supported by Shire of Campaspe, along with Ray Priest and Kelweld Engineering, along with Mark Hill from Mawson’s Concrete. President of the committee, John Bentley, recognised the cricket club and junior football club contributions to the fence construction.
2009
Kyabram horsewoman Jessica Williams qualified for the 2010 Grand national Championships in Sydney with her performance at the Victorian Agricultural Society Werribee competition.
Competing in the Saddle Horse Championship there were more than 5000 entries in 712 classes and she was the champion rider in the 21- to 30-year-old age group on her hack Louis Vuitton.
She and her 19-year-old steed were among friends, with another Kyabram horsewomen, Kristy Revell, also off to the Grand National Championships following her second place finish at the same event
– Dawes and Vary continued their support of little athletics by supporting the Kyabram Gift, a handicap event which continues this day and involved all ages of the hugely popular club.
It is contested on the final evening of competition and is run over 100 metres, with handicaps issued to participants based on their personal bests for the season.
– Cooma cricket star Tom Sullivan and Stanhope skipper Leigh Haw shared the KDCA’s 1988-89 Jack Stone Medal, both collecting 12 votes to win by three from Fire Brigade’s Andrew Elborough.
Stylish Kyabram batsman Jason Roneberg finished fourth with eight votes, alongside Tongala’s Travis Johnstone and ahead of Jake Perry from Rushworth and Kyabram’s Ross Brown.
– Kyabram 45-year-old Craig Walsh won a gold medal in the 45-49 year age group in squad at the 12th Australian Masters Games.
Walsh was also a member of the Victorian team which won a silver medal in the 35-45 year old age group of the football competition. He had played several games the year before, as a 44-year-old, for Kyabram.
– Kyabram opened the new season with a practice match against Shepparton, then had plans to face-off against Tongala and Essendon Grammar.
Pre-season stars had included Brad Edwards, Liam Ogden, Brad Vick and Nathan Beck, while Dylan Smith and Wade Demasi were stepping up to senior ranks for the first time.
The club’s only major loss was Matt Delidio, who was bound for VFL club Coburg, and goalkicker Balraj Singh, who had joined Bendigo league club Eaglehawk.
Warren Langley, a 50 year volunteer and supporter of the club, was named the club’s number one ticket holder. He was presented with the ticket by club president Peter Croxford, having moved from Heidelberg to Cooma in 1959.
The retired 82-year-old dairy farmer never played football, but was a permanent fixture at home games alongside the interchange bench.
– Thirteen-year-old Jack Parker was the state champion for the Under 14 Fire Brigade fire hydrant race, the Stanhope youngster covering the 50 metre track carrying the six kilogram hydrant in 11.18 seconds.
He was coached by Rob Armstrong, Peter Armstrong and Daryl Cheong, their expertise assisting him in the vital connection of the plug - Jack behind to that point of the event, but completing the connection before the other competitors to claim the title.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor