Sports News

Hook, Line and Sinker with Lindsay Doust

Watch out fishies - they're coming!!!

The Queens Birthday weekend is a traditional time on the North Coast, with the rich Evans Head Fishing Classic always attracting anglers from all points on the compass.

Less well known is the Lennox Head Anglican Church Annual Fishing Competition, to be held from 6am Saturday to noon Sunday.

Contestants can fish from any of the local beaches, rivers or estuaries but fishing from the rocks or from boats is not allowed.

Although no one is likely to retire from their winnings, the organisers have put together an impressive 22 prize-winning categories, with some categories offering second place prizes. Prizes include rods and reels, fishing tackles kits, fishing tackle packs, picnic baskets, a marine radio and aerial, plus a lot more.

Anyone wanting to sign on can do so at the Lennox Head Bait and Tackle Shop, also the location of the Sunday afternoon presentations.

Entry for adults is just $12 and $6 for Under 16 Juniors $6.00. Families can obtain a group $22 entry.

For further details contact Pip Carter on 6686 4633 (b/h) or 6687 6390 (a/h) or 0405 141 537.

Outrage damages baseball showpiece

Geoff Hallman of Far North Coast Baseball indicates just one of the deep scars left on the main diamond of the Albert Park baseball facility.

The Albert Park baseball field, widely regarded as one of the finest baseball facilities in the country, was used as a venue by a motorist to perform burn-outs late on Saturday night.

The field has been left with deep scars where the wheels of the vehicle driven by the offender dug into the turf. Additionally, long stretches of grass were burned by the spinning wheels and are likely to die.

Far North Coast Baseball spokesperson, Geoff Hallman, shocked by the mindlessness of the act said "The damage will take months to repair, and adds additional work to the preparations the Association's volunteers have been putting in for the annual Timberjacks carnival in July, and the National AA championship's in January."

The Timberjacks tournament brings regional teams from across New South Wales and Queensland, plus a United States representative team.

According to Mr Hallman, baseball brings in over $500,000 to Lismore by way of sports tourism each year.

The Association is currently in negotiation with national officials to have the Australian provincial Championships played in Lismore on a permanent basis.

Hopefully it will be the police and not the seething baseball officials who catch up with the unconscious soul who was behind the wheel.

Brothers Steal Thriller

Marist Brothers announced their return to the Rex Airlines Far North Coast Baseball premiership race this weekend, with a thrilling last inning win over second placed Norths.

Norths were the first to strike with two runs in the top of the third, but Brothers soon hit back Andrew Carrall's run in the bottom of the dig with Mick Youngberry earning the RBI. Carrall was just happy to reach base as it was his first hit of the season.

Spurred into action Norths responded with another four runs, leaving the score at 6-1 at the end of the 4th innings. Veteran Paul Deegan racked up his first ever hit against Australian representative pitcher Matt Gahan, to set the wheels in motion for the Bears.

Norths took advantage of a number of Brothers fielding errors to apply the screws to their opponents.

Then Gahan showed his class and lifted his efforts, shutting down the Norths batting completely with four consecutive three-up and three-down innings.

Brothers scored two in the fifth and the seventh innings, leaving the Bears with a 6-5 lead with just the bottom of the ninth innings to be played.

Brothers Geoff Mackney gave his side a chance, drawing a walk from Mark Robb on the mound. Mackney was progressed to second by a Lucas Myers bunt, and then turned the corner on a Matt Gahan single. Mackney tied the game at six-all when a wild pitch escaped catcher Leon Elliott. Brothers stole the game when an Anthony Gahan single brought brother Matt home for the win.

In the other games of the weekend, Workers and Easts played a double header on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. Redbirds tales of woe continued, with two savage defeats at the hands of the Workers juggernaut. The highlight for Redbirds was Graeme Snape's two home runs over the left field fence off Worker's Club's Australian Provincial squad member Martin Tucker. Tucker's embarrassment was tempered only by the 17-5 win, and the fact that Snape was his final out for the game.

In the second leg of the double header, Workers romped home for a 22 -0 win.

Next weekend the league will have a weekend off as representative teams travel to Tamworth for the Invitational Carnival. FNC are the defending A-Grade champions and will be looking for another win this year.

Innovative comp brings new dawn - Golf

The Northern Rivers is about to step into a new era of golf.

Criticised locally in the past for being organised as elitist and self-serving culture the NRDGA is looking to broaden the appeal of the game by encouraging genuine regular competition between the best in the region.

Starting from the NRDGA Championships in Byron this weekend, and incorporating all of the club Open days throughout the year will be a points-score competition for Scratch, Veterans and Juniors.

The aim of the competition, named the Reynolds-Wilson Shield, is four-fold.

Obviously it will be a district wide competition that will encourage regular competition between the best players. Secondly it will encourage players to play other courses and show support for the smaller clubs.

Importantly it will be used as the basis for the NRDGA to select representative teams. In a three member team the selectors will be required to take the top two points scorers with one selectors choice, while for a four member team there will be two selectors choices. This will no doubt come as a relief to many golfers who, in the past, had suspected that teams were selected on a "mates" basis.

The fourth advantage of the new competition will be the encouragement for players to learn top play consistently though the season.

Ten points will go to the winner of each of the Open Days, with nine points for second, eight for third, etc. through to tenth receiving one point. However, this competition is also about improving the standards and as such players must be within ten strokes of the leader to qualify for top-ten points. Points for smaller Open Days will be trebled, while the annual NRDGA championship, which from 2005 will be the Reynolds-Wilson season closer, will be worth five times the points.

This is one of the most forward thinking concepts brought to Northern Rivers golf in many years as it will encourage genuine development of golf across the region, not just for those who show early promise, which seems to be the way of the recent past.

Rhein to feature at NRDGA Championships

Young Lismore sensation Rhein Gibson will be hoping to take his form from the Australian Amateur Championships earlier this year when he tees up for the 2004 Northern Rivers District Championships this weekend.

This year Byron Bay will be hosting the 36-hole event for Open, Junior and veteran men, with play being held on Sunday and Monday.

By early this week there were already more than 80 nominations from outside the club, with an additional 40 or more from the host club, Byron Bay, also teeing-up for a chance to win the most important title on the Northern Rivers calendar.

The Championships have been given an additional boost this year by being included in the Reynolds-Wilson Shield standings for 2004-05. Shield points earned from the NRDGA Championship, earned by finishing in the top ten will be multipled by five.

Among the leading contenders for the title apart from Gibson include Neil Bullen from Ballina, Mark Wilson and Matt Crown from the Byron Bay and Tweed Head's Gary Tozer, and Michael Hogan.

Over 40 of the entrants have a handicap of five or less.

Casino

Thurs June 3

9 and 18 holes: Dave Beaumont

Sat June 5

Monthly Medal: Brett Dean

A Grade: Brett Dean

B Grade: Tony Cumming

C Grade: Russell Charlton

Coraki

Wed June 2

Ladies

4th W.G. Medal, and Monthly Medal

Division 1: Kathy Schaefer

Division 2: Audrey Hyde

Division 3: Kae Nixon

Sat June 5

Monthly Mug: Dave Loader

A Grade: Brian Walker

B Grade: Dave Loader

C Grade: Ron Ferguson

Kyogle

Thur June 3

Vets Steve Beaumont,

Ladies, Rene O'Reilly.

Sat June 5

Monthly Medal

A Grade: Kelly O'Reilly.

B Grade: Des Farrell

Lismore Workers

Thur June 3

18 hole: Paul Gahan

9 hole: Shaun Colby

Sat June 5

Monthly Medal

A Grade: Craig Hurley

B Grade: Tim Grimson

C Grade: Matt Grimson

Monthly Mug: Tim Grimson

Woodburn Evans Head

Wed June 2

Ladies Club Ch'ship Rd 1

A Grade: Irene Crampton - 78

B Grade: Veronica Kelly - 89

C Grade: Maureen Noonan - 111

Medal

A Grade: Debbie McPhie

B Grade: Veronica Kelly

C Grade: Maureen Noonan

Thur June 3

Veterans

A grade: John Levett

B Grade: Max Bancroft

Sat June 5

Monthly Mug: Jim Haynes

A Grade: Alan Irvine

C Grade: Fred Moss

Skins: Coady Strong

Ladies: Johanna Gibson

Three now set sights on survival - Soccer FNC

Last weekends results have left a gaping chasm in the Premier Division ladder that must give the brains trusts of Bangalow, Thistles and Alstonville cause to reassess their goals for the year. Coming out of the mid-year break the three clubs are now locked into a three-way tussle to avoid relegation. On current form it will be one of these three clubs that makes the drop at the end of the season. It will also mean that extra spice will be present whenever one of the three face up against each other.

Thistles and Alstonville both lost their matches 3-nil to Stars and Ballina respectively. Clint Colless was superb for Ballina, netting all three goals for the home side. Bangalow fared better by scoring four goals to earn a draw with a ten-man Byron Bay.

Maclean and Rovers also fought out a draw after a double by Rovers Matthew Olley had seemingly put the game firmly in Rovers hands. Two late replies from Kevin Crofton and Grant Nielson were enough for Maclean to salvage a 2-2 result.

The top seven are all capable of running into form and securing a top two finals position. Workers 2-nil defeat of Casino shouldn't raise any alarm bells at Casino.

This weekend Maclean will host Byron in a catch-up game. On Tuesday night Bangalow and Rovers will again run onto the field for a second try at the game that had to be abandoned when a power failure across the district took out the lights mid-game during their previous encounter. All other clubs have a bye this week.

In the Women's First Division a number of teams played two games over the weekend. Ballina and SCU fought out an epic 3-all draw with L Kelly netting a double for Ballina. SCU then followed this up with a nil-all draw with competition leaders Workers Club.

Thistles appear to have overcome some of their problems in front of goal. They bagged four goals from their two games, including three in their game against Rovers. That's sorted out their goal drought (they had scored only five goals from their first seven games) but the same cannot be said for their defence. They let in ten goals against Rovers to lose 3-7 and were then given the old 'USA armed-forces over-kill treatment by Byron Bay who took them apart 10-1. Katie Parker added four goals for Rovers to put spine into her defence of the Golden Boot award that she won last year.

Woodburn and Lennox Head played out a tough 1-all draw, leaving Lennox three points clear of Thistles who lie on the bottom of the table without a competition point to their names.

The SCU result was the second draw for the weekend for Workers as they had been run to the limit against Byron Bay in a game that saw Byron earn a 1-all draw against the competition favourites.

Ballina will play SCU at Saunders Oval next Tuesday night with all other clubs having a bye for the long weekend.

Cup runneth over for Byron

Tuesday night's Tursa Cup quarter final between Woodburn and Byron will stand as a stark example of the difficulties that lower grade clubs can face when lining up against Premier Division sides. Byron took the game 12-nil. Byron have now earned a semi final place against either Workers Club or Goonellabah, who last year made the finals to show that first division teams can match up with Premier teams in a knockout format.

Ballina put away Thistles to earn a semi final against either Stars or SCU. The two remaining quarterfinals were played at Stars as this publication was going to print.

Golden Boot

Workers Club's Tom Guttormsen added one to his tally against Casino, giving him a tally of 13 coming into the break. Breathing down his neck is Matthew Olley who knocked in both goals for Rovers against Maclean.

Men's premier division

13 - Tom Guttormsen (Workers)

10 - Matthew Olley (Rovers)

9 - Adam Bostock (Byron Bay)

8 - Bruce Morhaus (Byron Bay)

7 - Callan Starrett (Stars)

Women's First Division

12 - Krystal Gollan (Workers)

11 - Rose Argent (Byron Bay); Katie Parker (Rovers)

8 - Chloe Dunsmore (Byron Bay)

7 - Emma Turner (Ballina)

Hansen maintains perfection - Table Tennis

In the first match of Round Seven in Division 1 of the winter teams competition the Ballina team of Henning Hansen, Ken Hudson and Rod Hearne narrowly defeated the Lennox Head side of Col Gradwell, Jim Armstrong and Bruce Thomas 6-5. The match was decided on the last game of the evening when Hansen was able to overcome Armstrong. Hansen again won all three of his singles matches. The best game of the evening was a marathon between Rod Hearne and Jim Armstrong. After being tied at 2 games all, Jim Armstrong won the final game 16-14 to take the rubber 3-2.

The second match in 1st Division was not as close. The Byron Bay side of Werner Borkhardt, Brian Weise and Graham Bultitude defeated the Lismore side of Tony Coronakes, Andy Jackson and Mark Simes 7-4. Best for Byron was Werner Borkhardt who remains the only undefeated player in 1st Division. Werner won all three of his singles matches.

1st Division table

1st Byron Bay

2nd Ballina

3rd Lismore

4th Lennox

Shem bags dozen as Bravehearts prepare - Aussie Rules

The umpire (rear) seems to be impressed by the action during the 2003 Northern Championship at Oakes Oval between Coffs harbour and the Summerland League. The two teams will line up for the 2004 title at Fripp Oval, Ballina this Saturday.

The Byron Magpies have maintained their unbeaten record for the 2004 SAFL season thanks to an 18-9-117 defeat of Casino 13-8-86. Underpinning the victory was a stunning 12-goal haul by Magpie forward Shem Aitken.

The Lions went into the first break holding a one-point lead, a disappointing return as they had the advantage of a three-goal breeze. Aitken had heralded what was to come with a five-goal return from the first stanza.

Byron, with the assistance of the breeze in the second term, kicked six goals to the Lions two and set up a match winning 26-point lead. Byron's Matt Galonski and Rob Caldwell were creating opportunities from midfield for Aitken to convert. In defence John Porritt led the way by cleverly restricting the Lions in attack.

The Lions were unable to take advantage of the wind assistance in the third term with Byron increasing their lead to 47 points at the last change.

Lions Steven Krieg and Nathan Wall led a spirited and courageous rear guard attack in the fourth quarter for the Lions that netted five goals giving some respectability in the Lions score.

This Saturday the Summerland Bravehearts will be lining up against Coffs Harbour for the annual Northern Championship at Ballina's Fripp Oval, starting at 2pm. The team line-up will be decided on Wednesday night (as this publication goes to print).

The squad is being coached by Murwillumbah captain coach Paul McCulloch and includes Seb Steenhuis and Frank Reid, the captain/coaches of Casino and Nimbin respectively.

Shem Aitken's availability will also be determined on Wednesday.

Other leading players likely to line-up include vice-captain Blair Patterson from Nimbin and Byron's Dave McLean and David Hayworth.

Turkeys make turkeys of form sheets - Rugby League

If the local rugby league competition were a betting game then there would be a good argument for a steward's enquiry after the completion of round nine of the Group One competition.

The biggest upset of the year would have to be Kyogle Bush Turkeys finally getting up to win a match (22-20 against Ballina). Also, ladder-leading Mullumbimby went down 30-18 to Grafton Ghosts, a team that had a 2-5 win/loss record before the weekend.

Admittedly both Kyogle and Ghosts have shown improvement over the past few weeks but it would have been a hard-bitten gambler who would have predicted these wins.

Kyogle's win is all the more meritorious in that it appears that the club has gone through a soul searching period about a month ago. They had not won a match and they had to forfeit a reserves game. Things were going so poorly that there were rumours about their on-going viability. Their rebound started with a very tight loss to the reigning premiers, Marist Brothers. This was followed by a last minute loss to fellow cellar dwellers Casino RSM. For many that was seen as Kyogle's only hope of registering a win for the season. However, on Sunday, facing perennial finalists Ballina they produced an effort that combined solid defence with enough attacking élan to get across the line in the last couple of minutes. Reports from the game said that Kyogle had much the better of the possession and could have won by much more.

With Mullum losing, Marist Brothers took the opportunity to move to top of the ladder with a 20-12 victory over Byron Bay.

Lower Clarence firmed up their hold on third place with a 40-32 victory over an inconsistent South Grafton.

SCU students in line for State

Five Southern Cross University students will be travelling to Brisbane this weekend to take part in the Queensland universities rugby league trials. The trials are being used to select a Queensland Universities side to play NSW in a State of Origin clash on June 14.

Matt Barlow from the SCU union sports department said it was likely that Brett Spears will retain his 2003 position on the wing. Others who are in the running include prop Simon Andrews and centre Nathan Tolley.

Junior League

A number of Northern Rivers Under 18 representative players are in the running to be selected in the touring Country NSW Under 18 team according to the president of Group One, Robin Harley. He reports that the Northern Rivers boys were unlucky to lose 20-18 to Port Macquarie in the recent round of the NSW Country Under 18 Championships. The Northern Rivers team was leading 10-6 at half time but were cut down with injuries, holding their lead until the final minutes of the game.

Locally, the reformed South Lismore rugby league club tasted its first victory last Saturday. Playing against Ballina at Woodlawn Oval in the Grade 12 competition they took the points 24-20 in front of a large crowd of vocal, local Southies last Sunday week. Coach Wayne Cuthbertson said that he couldn't be happier. "It wasn't just that they won. I was just as impressed by both their effort and their camaraderie, which is what sport is really about." He told The Echo.

For the record the scorers in the historic club's first win since it's reformation were - Tries: Blake Northfield (3), Corey Nichols (1). Goals: Robert Kelly.

They then duly repeated the performance last weekend by registering another win against Brothers - remarkably by the same score - 24-20.

Club organisers are putting out an all points bulletin to all former South Lismore players. They want to form an honour guard for the current players when they run on to the field against arch-rival Marist Brothers at Crozier Field on June 19 in a match to be refereed by guest whistle-blower, former leading NRL ref Brian Grant.

The club will know later this week if South Sydney's Brian Fletcher will be attending the game as part of the big-Bunnies support for the re-formed South Lismore.

SCU mugged - Pioneers scrubbed - FNC Rugby Union

In the boilover of the round Grafton won their first game of the season against ladder leaders Southern Cross University in Grafton last Saturday.

In a season that has shown all teams to be relatively closely matched (even Grafton, with a 1-6 has a points differential of only minus-36) the 59-11 result in Grafton's favour was remarkable.

The demolition was set up even before the students left to head south for the game. Six of the top-flight SCU players were sidelined due to injury, including Mark Sherwood, Nathan Jones, Dale Ledger, Damien Thom, Brendan Brook and Bill Creuws.

Grafton's scoring avalanche was led from the front with prop Dan Haynes crossing for three tries.

Lismore City is the reigning premier and their first grade team decided to send the other clubs a strong reminder of the fact on Saturday when they whitewashed the fast-fading Wollongbar-Alstonville Pioneers 30-zip. Reports from the game were glowing about hooker Damian Burley's return to first grade after an absence of many years.

Casino moved to top place on the ladder thanks to SCU's loss and their 17-7 victory over Ballina at Ballina. Casino extended their 7-nil half-time lead to 14-nil with a brilliant try by Dane Gilmore.

Ballina struck back late in the half but it was never going to be enough to threaten the Bulls.

In the Village competition Lennox Head maintained their competition lead despite losing to Iluka 17-nil. Their nearest rival, Kyogle walloped Richmond Range 63-7.

No doubt the Richmond Range lads will be dining out on the fact that they outscored Lennox this week. They haven't had much else to celebrate this year so they may as well use that excuse.

Village Competition ladder: Lennox Head 23, Kyogle 21, Iluka 19, Evans River 17, Bangalow 9, Richmond Range 0.

Local surfers looking to step up

Byron's Jarrad Sullivan performs a 'sick-cutback' from the top of a wave during the second round of the O'Neill Deep Blue Open, off Lohifushi Island in the Maldives. Photo: Surfing Australia

Over 170 of the world's leading surfers are currently on Lohifushi Island off the Maldives in the Indian Ocean for the most prestigious event of the World Qualifying Series, the O'Neill Deep Blue Open. North coast surfers include Jarrad Sullivan and Josh Lewan of Byron and Lennox Head's Jock Barnes.

As can be seen by the photo above, Jarrad was in good form, but he found the elite competition too much on the day, going down to Brazilians Fernando Moura and Christianno Spirro. Lewan finished third in the heat while Sullivan could only manage fourth. The first two in each heat progressed into the next round.

Barnes made it through to qualify for the third round of the $A180,000 event.