NEW Bendigo East coach Lee Schraner has added another accolade to his decorated lawn bowls career, winning the men’s singles at the Victorian Open in Shepparton on Friday.

A relieved Schraner – currently Australia’s No.1 ranked men’s bowler – went one better than his runner-up finish of the past three years when he defeated Mark Foster 21-11 in the final.

Schraner was slow out of the blocks and trailed Foster 8-2, before finding his groove and surging to an impressive victory by 10 shots.

Schraner booked his place in the final after comfortably accounting for Essendon’s Jay Bye-Norris in a semi-final on Friday morning.

Schraner narrowly missed out on playing good mate and fellow Beastie Brad Marron in his semi-final.

East’s Marron lost a thrilling quarter-final to a fast-finishing Bye-Norris 21-20 on Thursday.

Schraner and Marron were among three Bendigo Bowls Division players who made it through to the last 16 in the men’s singles, along with Kangaroo Flat’s Cameron Wilson.

Meanwhile, on Thursday South Bendigo’s Mitch Sidebottom won his second Victorian Open title in as many years.

Having won last year’s men’s singles at the expense of Schraner, Sidebottom teamed with Benalla’s Matt Robertson, who skipped, and Kyabram’s Russell Locke to win the men’s triples.

The trio defeated the team of Brett Wright (Barooga Sports), Brett Gunning (Shepparton Golf) and David Daws (Shepparton Golf) 16-12 in the final.

“It was a see-sawing game and we found it really hard to break them open,” Sidebottom said.

“I didn’t get going until about the 10^th end and that’s when Russell started to click as well as leader, so Robbo probably kept us in it for most of the game.

“Once we were able to get a bit of pressure on we picked up a five and that turned the game our way and it’s obviously fantastic to get the win.”

Sidebottom – who is sitting second behind Schraner on the BBD pennant skippers ladder after four rounds – bowed out in the singles in the round of 64 to Bye-Norris earlier in the week.

• Victorian Open winners:

Men’s singles – Lee Schraner.

Men’s pairs – Cooper Wescombe, Jarryd Davies (s).

Men’s triples – Mitch Sidebottom, Russell Locke, Matt Robertson (s).

Women’s singles – Mikayla Long.

Women’s pairs – Dawn Hayman, Lisa Phillips (s).

Women’s triples – Suzanne Tyson, Catherine Dudley, Beverley Cahill (s).

Mixed pairs – Tristania Doolan, Dane McKinnon (s).

Meanwhile, South Bendigo’s home clash with Eaglehawk in the grand final rematch highlights Saturday’s round five of BBD weekend pennant.

When they last met the Hawks defeated South 96-92 to win the 2017-18 flag earlier this year in March.

Both teams are again shaping as being among the key players at the business end of this season.

South Bendigo (4-0) is undefeated and top of the ladder, while the Hawks are in third position (3-1), with the match to feature five of the top seven ranked rinks in the competition in South Bendigo’s Mitch Sidebottom (No.2), Brad Holland (No.5) and Jason Turley (No.7) and the Hawks’ Darren Burgess (No.4) and Brayden Byrne (No.6).

• Round five – Bendigo v Bendigo East, Golden Square v Inglewood, Kangaroo Flat v Castlemaine, South Bendigo v Eaglehawk.

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