The visitors overcame a late Central Wendouree charge to run out 99-98 winners.

Brenton Coad sealed the victory with a stellar display of skipping in the final few ends, despite being soundly beaten by John Glenton’s rink over the course of the day.

Victoria selector Barry Clark said it was a relief to notch up early runs on the board after a disastrous start last season.

“We fell in – it got tight at the finish,” Clark said. “We had a four-shot lead at lunch and led by 20 with about 15 ends to go, but they came home strong and played well on their home green.”

Each side split the rinks, with Victoria skippers Noel Verlinden and Jarrod Burt counter-balancing the victories of Central Wendouree skippers John Glenton and Greg Roberts.

Roberts’ four secured a tight 24-22 win over Wes Lennecke, while Glenton’s rink proved to be the most dominant after a 33-20 drubbing of Coad’s four. Burt secured a 27-19 triumph over Col Johnson’s team, with Verlinden securing a 30-22 win over Col Wright’s four.

However, Clark said Victoria had plenty of work left to do when it came to sorting out

four winning combinations.

“I don’t know if we’ve got our combinations right yet,” he said.

“We’ve been practising on synthetic, but we weren’t strong enough and we weren’t ready for Saturday’s game.

“No disrespect to Central Wendouree, but we’ll have to improve 100 per cent for Ocean Grove (next round).”

Meanwhile, Central Wendouree will take heart from the loss after making the move from division one last season.

Victoria will enter the Ocean Grove match missing key players Andrew Panther and Jess Thomas.

Grove, a league benchmark, started its season with a sound 116-73 thrashing of Avenue.

In other matches, Sebastopol ground out a 105-89 win over Bareena, newcomer Lara defeated Webbcona 106-76 and Geelong West beat Queenscliff 97-84.

michael.pollock@fairfaxmedia.com.au