Sports News

Fish are back biting

Last weekend the weather improved and a good few days of fishing followed. Sunday was almost the perfect day for estuary lure fishing. One club had a flathead outing that produced about 80 fish, all on lures or plastics, with the biggest 7kg.

Jewfish are also on the bite around the Ferry and Pimlico, taking live baits and plastics.

The beach has picked up well for tailor. Last weekend they seemed to want to bite nearly all day but as the Fish Predicta says, they were best late in the day.

Blackfish are still proving elusive. There is the odd fish here and there but numbers seem to be missing this year.

Outside fishing has been fairly quiet due to the weather but if you can get out, there are some good snapper to be caught.

It's time to think about a trip to Fraser Island chasing tailor. August, September and October are the three best months. There are now strict bag limits in place but you can still bring home plenty, as well as have several feeds while you are there. It is hard to find better beach fishing than at Fraser Island.

This weekend the Fish Predicta, which costs only $6.95, says the best time to fish is between 9.30am and 1.30pm.

Ballina answers critics on the field

The Mullumbimby Giants, already assured of the minor premiership, should cruise past Byron Bay's Red Devils at Les Donnelly Field this Saturday. Mullum have developed a level of professionalism and discipline under David Latta's tutelage perhaps unrivalled in Group One history. Their kicking game and the eradication of handling errors has installed them as odds on favourites to go all the way this year. Conversely, their opponents this weekend, the Byron Red Devils, were handed a rugby league lesson when they hosted the Lower Clarence Magpies last game, eventually going down 54-4. The speed, skill and aggression of the Magpie backline was a sight to behold and with Jason Hebbard leading the forward pack around the park Lower Clarence is definitely premiership material. Lower Clarence receive the bye this week and should be well rested and raring to go when they take on the Giants next week, in what could easily be a grand final preview.

South Grafton Rebels managed a hard fought win against the Kyogle Turkeys when they visited New Park last Saturday largely due to the efforts of hooker Stevie Kirby who fought off illness to deny the mountain men victory. Kirby's two try heroism will need to be repeated double fold in the home town derby against the Grafton Ghosts. The Ghosts put on 32 points in the final 20 minutes against a revitalised Casino Cougars to claim victory 54-22. Captain Dean Callaway was and is the secret to the Ghosts success and he can expect some early attention from the Rebel pack.

Ballina responded well to the referee crisis both in terms of their on field behaviour and on the scoreboard. The Referees Association had placed a boycotted on officiating at the Ballina home ground and the Seasiders were forced to move the game to Les Donnelly Field in Mullumbimby. The move turned out be a masterstroke as Ballina knocked off the favoured Marist Brothers outfit 56-30. Troy Johnson, half-back for the Seagulls, lead his team around the park with great enthusiasm and vision. In round seven the Seagulls struggled to overcome Casino, this time around it should not prove so difficult. That said, the Cougars are a big-hearted mob and Ballina can not expect any quarter to be given by the 'wooden spooners'.

The hoodoo remains

Even Gold Rat's 'old boy's day' couldn't break the hoodoo that Lismore City has over the Southern Cross University team. Although Uni started well in the Crozier Oval fixture last Saturday, racing away to a 12-0 lead, the speed to the break down and commitment of Lismore's backrow finally told against the students as City came away 28-22 winners. In addition to the fine work of Ray Taylor and Heath Conlan, City welcomed back their flying fullback Steve Hughes, who combined brilliantly with Mitch Mowle at inside centre. Hughes crossed for two tries and landed four conversions.

This weekend Lismore City should make light work of Grafton when the Redmen finally emerge from their cars and strap on their boots in Lismore. Last time the two team met Grafton held City under 30 points with a 26-5 loss. With only two games left before the semi finals, City will be looking for the four try bonus point.

The Rats will be hopeful of seeing off the Casino Bulls when they travel to Casino this Saturday. The Bulls lie just ahead of the students in second and the youngsters will be keen to jump their raw boned country cousins to get a home ground semi final. In round 11 the men from Casino flogged the Rats 42-7 but this time around it should be a more even tussle. SCU looked the goods early in their game against Lismore City and if their slick backline gets the protection it deserves from their back row they should be able to come away with the win. Casino will be tough up front and their go forward could prove to be too painful and intense for the students.

If the Gold Rats lose the next two games and Ballina Seahorses win both of theirs, the Seahorses will glide past them into third. This will mean an easier semi final against Casino rather than against the 'peaking' Lismore City team. It is with this in mind that the Seahorses will welcome the Wollongbar Pioneers to Ballina at 3.15pm on Saturday. The Pioneers are past masters at slowing the ball down in the ruck and most of their encounters have been close ones and this will increase the frustration of the Ballina pack. There may well be some flare ups.

It's tight at the top

Italo Star Under 14 B sweeper, Simon McInnes, launches a free kick down field.

With eight points separating seven teams at the top of the Soccer Far North Coast premier division the competition is balanced on a knife edge, with even the top team still an outside chance of missing out. The Maclean Bobcats are at the base of the chasing pack and they need to win everything from here to make the play offs. This weekend they go toe to toe with the Casino Cobras and the big country lads would be very unwise to think it a fait accompli. The Bobcats are a young enthusiastic squad and although they don't travel very well, their speed down the flanks makes them particularly dangerous. Casino have had a spectacular year, last week they humbled the defending premiers, Italo Stars, 5-0, dominating the contest from whistle to whistle.

Rovers might think they have an easier match up when the meet Thistles in the traditional East Lismore derby this Saturday but they should think again. Thistles are still in some danger of relegation. Thistles have never suffered the indignation of the fall in their forty illustrious years of existence and they know that every loss increases the risk. You can bet this match will be a ferocious struggle.

Workers lie in third after a very impressive 5-0 dismantling of Thistles last game. Workers have always played a highly structured style of football and nothing disturbs that format more than wild unkempt enthusiasm. Ballina Seahorses play exactly that style of harrying scattergun soccer and they are particularly troubling at home. Ballina lost 2-1 to Byron Bay's Rams over the weekend and will face them again on Wednesday night in the TURSA cup final. This demanding schedule might leave them a little jaded and it could prove the difference.

Alstonville will be staring relegation in the face when host the Rams on Saturday afternoon. It's a long way back from first division as Goonellabah's Hornets can attest and Villa's coach Bobby Marron will be leaping about manically to keep his team from this fate.

Bangalow will be short Reid Campbell, who was sent off against Rovers, in their round ball bout with Stars. As it turned out Italo Stars' musical devotees Starrett, Austen and Maslen might as well have gone to Splendour in the Grass, for all the difference it made to the outcome in the game against the Cobras. Stars supporters will be hoping that their minds are back on the job this weekend.

Harvey World Travel Golden Boot standings

Harvey World Travel are sponsoring this year's golden boot awards with a prize of two nights at The Australis Sovereign Hotel, Surfers Paradise, for both the men and women's golden boot of the year.

Mens Premier Division

16 T Guttormsen, 15 M Olley, 13 A Bostock, 10 G Nielson, 9 W Mortimer, C Starrett, 8 B Morhaus, T Matthews, 7 N Scully

Womens First Division

18 E Turner, 16 R Argent, 15 K Gollan, K parker, 12 C Dunsmore, T Want, 10 R McIntosh, T O'Reilly, 9 L Kelly, J Gollan.

My Lord, Matt's Bat

Father Tom Maloney cradles the Mathew Hayden signed bat that is up for auction on Saturday, August 14, at Alstonville Bowling Club at 7pm. Father Tom was Mathew's coach in his last years of secondary school at Marist Brother Ashgrove College where Mathew began dedicating his cricket to the glory of God.

A rare Mathew Hayden signed bat will be auctioned as part of this year's Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Challenge Shield celebrations at the Alstonville Bowling Club this Saturday and Sunday, August 14-15.

Wilson Creegan will be the auctioneer with the auction starting at 7pm sharp.

Phone bids will be accepted, however, second parties must make themselves known prior to the commencement of bidding. All proceeds will go to Lismore Legacy Club.

For further details phone Bruce Ravenscroft on 6682 2420.

Takes two be a champion

Shakirra Gream and Harrison Brown, winners of the duckling division in Sunday's race.

Young runner Todd Pursey set a cracking pace in the first run leg of Ballina Triathlon Club's 'duathalon' on July 25, sprinting the first 1.8km leg in well under six minutes. Highly credentialed performers Glen Curtis and Matt Lamont chased hard and waged a personal dual for the race lead through out the rest of the contest, with Matt eventually wearing down his rival to take first.

Meanwhile diminutive Michelle Ede, fresh from international competition, led the ladies and eventually drew away from key rival Karen Gilfillan to cross the line first. Michelle was recently chosen in the Australian University Triathlon Team that competed in the World University Triathlon Championships in Palma De Mallorca, Spain, and finished a credible 33rd in the world class field, which included Olympians and several of the world's elite triathletes.

Winners:

Ducklings - Shakira Gream (F), Harrison Brown (M). Junior - Michelle Ede (F). Open - Kasadevi Curtis (F), Matt Lamont (M). Veteran - Karen Gilfillian (F), Rob Malcolm (M).

The clubs next duathalon will be held on Sunday, August 22.

Who'd be a referee?

Editorial by Laurie Axtens

During the dark ages whole townships, having captured someone from an opposing clan, would behead the transgressor and kick the head about. Later refinements used a goat's bladder, in a game called 'melee' and from melee soccer emerged. In 1832 Webb Ellis transformed soccer into rugby union by picking up 'the head substitute' and running it into the goal, or so the story goes. By 1895 union had split into two codes and so rugby league was born.

What separates a barbaric act of mutilation and human degradation into the performance of a skilled and entertaining contact sport is the formulation and honouring of rules, rules enforced by an honoured elder or referee.

Keeping the warring factions behaving in a civilised fashion can be a very difficult job. Referees have to assert themselves while letting the game flow. They have to be fluent in their knowledge of the rules while keeping up to date with an ever-increasing rate of rule change. They have to concentrate all game while sprinting to keeping up with play and all this under the unblinking eye of video surveillance.

Every sportsperson and spectator owes the official a profound debt of gratitude, but instead we often greet them with jeers and personal abuse. Officials are essential to the future of sport and at present we aren't doing enough to encourage young people to take up the whistle. In the short term referees, like baseball umpires, should be given the power to have violent and abusive crowd members removed from the ground.

In terms of sporting culture, we need to institute the practice of giving the officials three cheers at the end of our games and just one each team.

In Johannesburg last week a soccer referee pulled a gun and shot dead a complaining coach. Is this the road we wish to travel down? Lets take the pressure off our officials, people, and lets do it now.

Crunch time for Nimbin - SAFL

The Byron Magpies ran rampant over the Casino Lions at Bangalow on the back of the twin towers of John Porritt and Shem Aitken on Saturday afternoon to win 28-13-181 to 5-3-33. Porritt, in his 200th game, and Aitken both displayed all the skills befitting a metropolitan game.

The Murwillumbah Hawks continued their climb away from the bottom of the table with a great win over the Lismore Metro Bar Swans.

The Swans led early and went to half-time in front by 19 points, but a third quarter onslaught by the Hawks, where they kicked six goals, created too big a deficit for the Swans to recover from in the last quarter.

Ballina RSL Bombers defeated the Nimbin Demons 14-7-101 to 7-12-54, to keep Ballina's aspirations for a top two spot intact, but they will have to improve next weekend when they take on the high flying Byron.

Cameron Hatty, Blair Patterson, James Duncan and Shaun Hambly have served Nimbin well this year and with fourth position still up for grabs, they will be hoping to give the Casino Lions the wooden spoon in their last match up of the year.

Baseball from the top shelf

The Rex Airlines Far North Coast Baseball blooded some of its best up-and-coming juniors on Monday night against the Under 19 AAA Australian Team.

FNC coach Paul Simes found himself with a combined side of local youngsters and Olympian Paul Gonzales and shadow Olympian Andrew Utting from the Australian squad.

The Australians took the game to the locals with three strikeouts from the first three at bats. This pressure increased on the locals when Dean Zorn's double for the visitors were 'errored' home, leaving the game open at 1-0 after the first dig.

FNC stuck with the Aussies in the second, cleaning up the line-up in just four batters but could not catch up with the speed of the opposition pitchers. By the bottom of the third the visitors were beginning to show their class against their own pitchers, scoring Zorn again from a Tim Auty single to centerfield.

FNC failed to gain any momentum in the top of the fourth, with three up and three down. Errors proved costly with the Aussies picking up two more unearned runs. A home run from Kent Dixon gave the visitors a 5-nil lead by the bottom of the fourth.

Determined to see his side make inroads into the Australian pitching, player coach Paul Simes picked up the first hit for the locals with a single to right field. Whilst unable to score, Simes lifted his team towards the closing stages of the game.

The Australians again capitalised on FNC mistakes when Kent Dixon was walked by a hit pitch ball and knocked in by a Mitch Ayres ground ball. Dean Zorn sealed a good performance when the he scored Murray Hopley for the Australian team, taking the score to 7-0.

FNC were eventually able to score in the final innings courtesy of import Andrew Utting. Utting was walked aboard and scored from a hit by 16 year old Queensland player, Sam Keehn, leaving the final score 8-1.

Tuesday night will see game two against the Australians, with the FNC seniors looking to avenge the defeat of their juniors in a tough encounter for the visitors.

Major League competition baseball returned to its usual format on the weekend as teams returned from tournaments duties of the past months. In Major League, undefeated Workers held off a spirited Norths charge to retain the top position, whereas Brothers easily accounted for last-placed Redbirds in a seven innings encounter.

Young stars shine at basketball

Maddy Euston from Lismore runs down court with Ashleigh Dale in support. Photo courtesy of Anthony Hogan.

Lismore's five junior representative basketball teams performed exceptionally well on the weekend, making the finals of the Northern Junior League in Coffs Harbour, with the Under 16s men's and Under 14s women's teams winning their grand final.

Kale Skinner, Tristan Poole, Scott Amor, and Joe Roche showed great leadership in the Under 16s comp, with the Lismore team finishing on top of the table. A strong defensive effort in the grand final then helped them win gold.

Led by Erin McKenzie, Ashleigh Dale and Marjy Grealish, the Under 14 women broke away in the third quarter to win against Gunnedah 76-46.

Inspired from the bench by Anthea Clarke and Charlotte Brierley, the Under 18 women led the scoring well into the grand final, but unfortunately Glen Innes came home strongly to win 62-39.

In the Under 18 men's final, Brett Arnull and Michael Laird worked tirelessly, with strong support from Will Matthews and Ben Ireland, but Grafton proved too strong in a close 51-42 game.

The Under 12s women had a very successful series, but were knocked out in the preliminary final by a rampaging Gunnedah 54-41.

New players are very welcome. Phone Troy Harris on 6629 1455 for more details.

Dropping in compulsory

Chris Clarson cuts a swath in the Dropknee final.

The biggest upset in Sunday's fifth round of the Headlanders Bodyboard Club comp at Ballina came in the Dropknee Division, where favourite Chris Clarson came second to an 'on-fire' Josh Hall.

Chris more than made up for his Dropknee disappointment by putting together a textbook display of spin to roll combinations to win the Opens Division.

Bede McFadden and Daniel Petterson, in the Cadet Division, were unlucky not to make the final, but Jimmy Martineau had his best result for the year coming in second to Ryan Wakefield. In the Junior Division Marly Beth was a standout making his first final for the year, however, Troy Rosee ended up taking out the section.

Interested bodyboarders should phone Simon Bruncke on 0421 789 758.

QLD Veterans Championships

Players from as far away as Townsville will be congregating at the Goonellabah RSL table tennis centre this Saturday to compete in the Queensland Veteran Championships.

Some of the highest ranked players in the country will slice, smash and spin their way through three man teams events, singles and doubles rubbers in many different age groups.

Winter comp final

Chris Strybos, Mark Smith and the seemingly infinite talents of Max Donati gave Byron a well deserved victory over Goonellabah 7-4 last Wednesday evening in the final of the winter team competition at Goonellabah RSL. Minor premiers Goonellabah went into the match as firm favourites, however, they never really recovered from losing their opening singles matches where they gifted Byron a 3-0 lead. Goonellabah won the first doubles fixture but it was never going to be enough to make it back into the contest.

The first round of the summer pairs competition is due to begin on Wednesday, August 11.

Cricket Juniors

Cycling

For details phone Darryl on 6621 4152.

Major clubs pull out of sport

Steve Bortolin, general manager at Lismore Workers Club said, "We will be looking to absorb the new tax, however, there will be need to cut back in the area of donations and sporting grants, though we are not certain which areas the cuts will effect as yet."