However, Saturday’s eight-shot success at Sebastopol wasn’t enough to lift the team to top spot on the Ballarat District Bowls Division ladder.

That honour sits with Ballarat East, which maintained its perfect record in 2017-18 with victory over Webbcona.

Ballarat skippers Paul Ashmore and Wayne Fitzgerald claimed the rink wins on Saturday, while Neil Morris and Alan Jones helped salvage some points for the Kookaburras outfit.

Club selector Mark Fothergill said away wins are important in the hotly-contested division one competition and was pleased Ballarat was able to defeat a Sebastopol unit that had the wood on his club last season.

The second-placed Ballarat sits five points below the Two Blues on the table leading into next weekend’s encounter with 2016-17 grand finalists Learmonth.

Learmonth, which is fifth on the ladder, collected a seven-shot victory over bottom side Creswick on Saturday.

City Oval headlines the group of teams on two wins after toppling Central Wendouree.

The City Oval side picked up three rink wins on its way to a 101-75 success on home soil.

Meanwhile, Mt Xavier was unable to beat Buninyong.

The club had been hoping to produce a big result for key players Brian and Kevin McKeegan, who are brothers of the late Carmel Mitchell, who died in the recent bus crash tragedy near Avoca.

However, Buninyong proved too strong, winning 87-68.