Werribee has long suffered at the hands of Essendon on its journeys to Windy Hill, but will do so no more.
The Bees ended their hoodoo at the tough away venue with a 76-69 win in Bowls Victoria’s division 1 on Saturday.
Bees skip Snowy Barker has so often made a gloomy trip back from Windy Hill, but the tide has finally turned.
“I can’t remember the last time we won there,” Barker said. “Even in premier division they were always hard to beat there, so everyone was just rapt to get a win.”
Werribee has found its form in December.
After just one win from the season’s first seven matches, the Bees have strung together consecutive wins.
The positive form has renewed their hopes of survival in the state’s second tier.
The Bees lifted out of the bottom two, leap-frogging Essendon in the process.
“We seem to have a bit of momentum,” Barker said. “Maybe we’re getting a bit of confidence and starting to believe in ourselves. It takes us out of the bottom two and puts us above them. It just keeps us competitive down there. We’ve just got to keep trying to stack the wins up.”
Werribee claimed two of the rinks with Mick O’Neil and Rob Smith both winning by six shots.
Rob Panton played out a draw with Barker’s the only losing rink, down by five.
“It was a very good win,” Barker said.
“Very happy to win over there. It was close all day, but we pulled away towards the end. We were four shots up at the last end and we got three at that end.”
Werribee will be out to maintain the rage when it faces a wobbly Deer Park, who have lost their past four games after winning their first five. Irrespective of the form guide, Barker knows of the threat the Parkers possess.
“I don’t know what’s going on there; they’re not in form at the moment,” he said. “But I know it’s going to be a hard test.”