Sports News
 Bowled Over
Marked Green
The Women's District Carnival was again most successful - congratulations to the executive of the District Association and sincere thanks to the local clubs who provided greens, services and umpires for the three days.
Umpiring is an exacting job and being alert for three days on end can be very tiring so I guess one umpire can be forgiven for the following incident.
Called to do a measure to determine shot, the umpire first measured from jack to bowl, secured the tape in position and then proceeded to measure from bowl to bowl. Bowlers on the bank were understandably mystified, but one brave soul alerted the umpire to the mistake and with sheepish grin the situation was rectified.
Attention all men's clubs: Match Committee Chairman Kevin Locke, reminds you that the closing date for events you wish to be listed in the 2002 District Calendar is October 21. Please ensure he receives the details by phoning 6628 1814 or faxing 6628 7132.
Bowlers and friends are invited to attend a fun night out at City BC this Saturday at 7.30pm. For a cost of $11 you will be served a delicious three course dinner and a good time is sure to be enjoyed by all. Please phone the club on 6621 5991 to book a place.
Again at City BC, the following Sunday, October 21, commencing at 9.30am, the Richmond Sporting Clubs Challenge Shield will be held. Teams of four (men, women or mixed) with no more than two registered bowlers are invited to register. Cost of $20 per team includes a barbecue lunch and winners will receive $100 and the Shield. Casual clothes with Club shirts and flat-soled shoes are required.
The very popular South Lismore BC Men's $1,200 Pairs is being held on Sunday, October 29, with starting time at 9am and the format being four rounds. North Coast Insurance Brokers are the generous sponsors and six teams will share the prize money. Entry fee of $15 per player includes lunch and after game snacks. Nominate a team by phoning the club on 6621 3510.
Coaching Tip
Players, as well as directors, can stand on the rink and do not have to retire unless requested by the controlling body.
They must, however, stand a minimum of 2 metres behind the head.
It is against the rules to pick up your bowl and stand beside the player on the mat.
Umpire's Corner
Law 24 Marking a toucher
A toucher shall be clearly marked by the director of that team or by the marker in singles before the next bowl is delivered with a mark which is easily visible and readily removed.
If, in the opinion of either director, or opponent in singles, a toucher or a wrongly marked bowl comes to rest in such a position that the act of making a mark, or of erasing it, is likely to move the bowl or to alter the head, the bowl shall not be marked or have its mark erased but shall be indicated as a toucher or non-toucher as he case may be.
Until next week,
good bowling.
 Hook and Slices
with Stan Bendall
NRDGA
Good luck to the six Northern Rivers junior golfers playing in the Jack Newton Golf Foundation International Classic in Cessnock this week. Should be a top experience for them all!
The Northern Rivers district team, lead by Earl Scurr returned victorious from Tenterfield last weekend after their annual interdistrict tournament against New England. Northern Rivers won all three grades.
Well done to Lismore junior Rhein Gibson who finished second in the 14-15 year age group at the NSW junior championships in Newcastle recently.
Coraki
The George Gooley day is on this Saturday.
Don't forget the annual interclub encounter on Saturday, October 20 against Lismore for the Bartlett-Clarke shield.
Peter Gynther took out A grade in the October mug last weekend on a countback from Gordon Dutton who recorded a fine 1 under par round. Pat Gooley won B grade and Peter Cullen took out C grade and the mug with 64.
Lismore
Don't forget the Camp Quality Day on Sunday, October 21, for golfers and non-golfers. Only $20 per head and all funds raised go to helping kids with cancer.
A two person ambrose will be played this Saturday.
Lismore lady golfers will have a great opportunity to win two wonderful prizes when they play an 18 hole par event, sponsored by Sunland group. The winner will win a package for two at Legends Hotel, Surfers Paradise while the runner up will receive a game for two at Robina. Good luck girls!
The Bartlett-Clarke shield will be played against Coraki on Saturday, October 20 as a 4BBB stableford.
The annual pro-am will be held on November 4.
Big Al Boyd won the individual stableford last Thursday by 2 from Athol Rogers and young Brad Rodgers (son of Mark - no relation to Athol!). Gerry Lynch won the front nine from Earl Durheim; Bruce Nobbs won the second nine from Rick Savins and back to back club champ Steve Fredericks won the gross with another fine sub-par round of 2 under.
Rhein Gibson won the A grade medal last Saturday by a shot from Will Roberts. Pierre Feletti took out B grade medal on a countback from Ray Nugent. Mark Denmeade won C grade from Robbie McInness. Geoff Gaggin returned to the winners' circle by taking out D grade and the monthly medal, winning by a shot from Anthony Magary.
Steve Fredericks is the club champ for 2001, winning by a shot from Gene Ward. Brian Whelan won B grade; Bruce Mathieson won C grade; Brenton Hare D grade and Lloyd Kelly the junior title. Well done fellas!
A correction to last week's report about the changes to the course: the tees for the fourth and seventeenth tees will be joined NOT the sixteenth and seventeenth.
Woodburn- Evans Head
A 4BBB stableford will be played this Saturday.
There will be a single versus par event on Saturday week as a tee up for cancer - $1.
Jean Pike and Val Forster won the ladies 4BBB stroke last Wednesday.
Jack Milgate and Paul Kerr won the vets' 4BBB last Thursday.
Nathan Gemmell won the overall trophy in last Saturday's single stroke; Graeme Cuskelly won A grade, Brett Forrester won C grade and Julie Walsh won the ladies.
Jim Pike won the RSL members single stableford last Sunday.
Mullumbimby
Don't forget the open mixed day on Monday, October 15!
Or the big open day on Saturday, October 27 - nominate now and play the new course challenge.
Casino
This Saturday Casino head off to Ballina for the second round of the Bardwell-Ellis trophy and go in 2 in front.
Those at home this Saturday will play a single stableford.
Remember the son and grandson efforts of the Sweeney family I have been mentioning lately? Well, it MUST be in the genes because Warwick, son of Ron and father of Wade made his mark last Saturday, winning C grade and the monthly medal with 64 in very windy conditions by 6 from Jim Poulos. Greg Martin won B grade from Claude Viel and Ray Stock took the A grade honours on a countback from Rodney Wells.
Mark Patterson won last Thursday's single stableford with an impressive 46 points, which equates to a fine 1 over par. Top effort mate! Simon Jones, who recorded an admirable 44 points reckoned he had the day won but alas, he hadn't counted on Mark's renewed good form!
 What's My Line
with Ian Clark
Fish were not given large brains with which to think with but have millions of years in instincts to compensate.
This is evidenced by the truth that most times catching fish can be a very finicky task.
A diver was diving around some big bombies when he noticed a boat fishing above.
The angler dropped in a line with a pillie on it and a nice sized coral trout charged up to the dropping pillie and stopped centimetres away and followed it to the bottom.
The trout swam around and looked at this pillie but did not take it. A piece of pillie was dropped over the side of the boat as berley.
The trout charged up and gulped it down without second thoughts and then returned to the hooked pillie. The trout chased away smaller fish but would not take the bait himself.
The moral of the story, if you believe it or not, is that it proves that with today's technology we can target and find fish but no one has developed a method to counteract natural animal instinct.
Over the last couple of weeks my dad, Mac, has been doing alright on some of his morning expeditions over to his favourite rock along Boulders somewhere.
And all the many times I have been fishing with him, Dad has always managed to pull a bigger one out of the water just when you think you have out fished him.
But his run came to an end when grandson Andrew Clark went fishing in Pop's boat up around Burns Point.
Andrew came away with two flathead, a bream and a school jew on the 47cm mark. All were caught and landed by the young bloke and left Pop with some fish cleaning to do at the boat ramp.
Not to be outdone they headed back the next day. Again Andrew showed up Pop with a nice size whiting to put into Pop's empty fishing bag.
Obviously Andrew is reading The Echo each week.
To this weekend:
The seas had settled a tad at time of writing so the walls will be a bit slow actionwise.
Still there are some bream at night and school jew on the beach side of north wall.
Flathead are in the Richmond. I would have a look at the Wardell Bridge or a bit further on towards Broadwater.
There is a lot of small stuff in the lower reaches of the Richmond but pan size ones are appearing amongst them.
The beaches are quiet at this stage but those who have been venturing outside have been rewarded with the odd snapper and trag jew.
The Evans River has flathead and whiting with flathead being the main target with lures.
Keep the dillies handy as there are some muddies moving about but you will have to try the creeks high reaches thanks to the dry weather.
Not much about this weekend but it is only early days and hopefully a bit of rain will boost things along.
Until next week,
fun fishing
Local Cricket Season
 Souths opening batsmean Brad Lofts, smacks one down leg side for four.
Souths quickies started the Far North Coast LJ Hooker league by taking advantage of the hard wicket and dismissing the Ballina Bears for 133.
Paul Fredericks, Jerry Deal and Craig Bateman each took three wickets in their opening day's bowling, the Ballina batsmen struggling against the pace.
Souths then followed their strong performance in the field with a solid batting display lead by opener Brad Lofts who top-scored with 86. Souths finished the day at 3-121, poised to take first innings points.
Casino Cavaliers also look likely to take first innings points after Mario Bratti took 5-26 from 12 overs on the way to dismissing Easts for 100.
Opener Adam Shields then knocked up 59 not out, ably supported by Michael Woods who scored 29 before falling to Al Nowlan.
Marist Brothers are in a strong position against Tintenbar-East Ballina after totalling 152 for their innings (mainly thanks to Chris Ball who scored 60 and Craig Matthews - 35).
Toby Collings then took 2 wickets for 2 in two overs leaving Tintenbar-East Ballina at 2-7 and in a vulnerable position for next week.
Workers and Brunswick-Byron are locked in a close match at Thompson Oval, Brunswick Heads.
Workers put in a full team effort to finish the day with 128 and Brunswick-Byron were 4-50 in reply.
At Hill Park, Wollongbar, Alstonville knocked up a huge 217 against Lennox Head before declaring, including 50s to Steve Johnson and Greg Potter while Lennox finished with 0-2.
Junior cricket
Lismore district junior cricket competitions will commence on October 20.
The second general meeting of the Lismore District Junior Cricket Association will be held on October 15, from 7.30pm, at the Station Hotel, South Lismore.
Items on the agenda include final team nominations and Code of Behaviour adoption.
At 6.30pm, preceding the meeting, Greg Smith from FNC Umpires will be available to field questions and will provide a presentation on umpiring, scoring methods, runouts and leg before wicket.
Inquiries to Barry Cooper 6628 4397 or Ian Knapman 6625 2989.
Interdistrict trials
Interdistrict trials will be held from 9am to noon on October 21 at the following venues:
- U12 - Marist Brothers nets (coordinator Ian Knapman, 6625 2989)
- U13 - Norths nets (coordinator Gerry Benfield 6688 2062)
- U14 - Marist Brothers nets (coordinator Alex Milenko 6688 4486)
- U16 - Easts nets (coordinator Neil Hellyar 6622 4833)
Note: All players to bring their own gear and ball.
Interdistrict dates: Rd 1 - Oct 28, Rd 2 - Nov 4, Rd 3 - Nov 11, Rd 4 - Nov 18, Rd 5 - Feb 3, Rd 6 - Feb 10, Semi-Finals (U12, 13 and & 14) and Rd 7 (U16) - Feb 17, Finals - Feb 24.
Any player who is keen to play but is unable to attend trial please contact the relevant coordinator.
In The Swim In Lismore
The Lismore Memorial Amateur Swimming Club will be holding a sign-on day for summer training on Sunday, October 14, at the Memorial Baths commencing at 2pm.
This sign-on day is for existing members, new members and for those interested in joining the club.
If your child is interested in swimming competitively or just for fun, fitness and the chance to make new friends then come along to the sign-on day and meet the friendly members of the Lismore swimming club.
Members of the committee and coaching staff will be available to answer questions regarding all aspects of the club.
Children are assessed by the coaches and placed into one of six squads depending on their ability.
Summer training will begin on Monday, October 15.
The first Club Night will be held on Friday, October 19. Club Nights are great family and social occasions.
Seventh Heaven - And The Game They Play There
For those who are already suffering from football withdrawal there is some relief available on the North Coast this weekend.
The Byron sevens tournament is on again and looks like being one of the most exciting and high quality events ever with over 40 teams competing.
The three New Zealand sides, Eskview, Ngongotaha and Hautapu shouldn't have it all their own way according to the organisers, who are expecting two strong Brisbane based Fijian sides to give the Kiwis a run for their money.
Also attending are several leading Sydney and Brisbane clubs, including teams from Eastwood, Manly, Canterbury, Sunnybank and Brisbane North.
Keep an eye out for an all star Byron team that features local footy champs like Byron's Luke Sullivan and Jason McCrombie, Ballina's Kane Scott and Chad Duensing, Sandy Maxwell from Southern Cross University and a number of the region's best league players including Chris Bristow and Jason Keevers.
The Lloyd McDermott Development Team, which gathers Aboriginal players from all over Australia to develop their skills and move them onto senior clubs, will be sending over two squads to take part on the weekend.
The Women's Sevens is also looking strong with 16 teams from three states including the East Sydney Chicks, a Sydney Uni team, the Drummoyne Lady Buds, the Brisbane East Tigers and the interestingly named Champagne Diablesses.
The Sevens format is run in eight pools from 9am on Saturday with the winner from each pool progressing into the A grade games and the second placed teams competing in B grade.
The women's comp is run on a similar system, but with just four pools and the top two moving up into A grade.
All sides play three games on Saturday with a knockout series on Sunday.
The sevens is being played on a quieter weekend this year to help local businesses.
The finals start at 1pm on Sunday with all the action at Marvel Street recreational grounds in Byron Bay.
Admission is free so come along and cheer on the local teams and get your footy fix.
by Lesley Patterson
Just Kicking Around
 Brad Hicks from Kyogle who was a member of the Northern NSW under 16 boys' soccer team who won the national titles. Brad is holding his medal and the trophy he received for being Soccer Far North Coast's junior player of the year.
Kyogle's Brad Hicks and Eli Gilfedder have just returned from the National soccer titles with a little bit of extra baggage that they can be very proud of.
Brad and Eli were members of the Northern NSW under 16 side that won their final 1-0 against Western Australia.
Brad had an extra bonus in the final - he scored the winning goal.
'I got the ball just inside my own half and then took another player on and got past him, then inside the 18 yard box another player tried to tackle me and I got around him, got the shot off and it just slid past the goalie,' he said.
Brad would like to take his soccer as far as possible.
'One day I'd like to represent Australia and play in the English premier league,' he said.
Northern NSW took on and defeated favourites NSW in the semi.
'We were really confident this year. It was probably a bit of a surprise to NSW that we won,' Brad said.
The final against Western Australia was also a very close game.
'There was nothing in it. We got a lucky break and scored the goal,' he said.
Brad had a great time travelling for the tournament.
'It was a great experience, I got to make new friends and catch up with the people I met the year before,' he said.
Brad has been playing soccer since he was six years old but still loves it according to his mother, Tracy.
'He started with the Kyogle under 7s and is now playing premier division and under 17s for Workers. He never gets tired of it - he's even got our dog Zac trained to catch and put the ball down,' she said.
Brad agrees that he never gets tired of soccer and already has plans for the off season.
'I've learnt heaps from playing in premier division - the older players have been really helpful but I like playing with young players too. I'm just going to keep training until the season starts again,' he said.
Brad also won the Soccer Far North Coast junior player of the year award this year, sponsored by Summerland Sports.
Volunteer Of The Year
One of the most inspiring aspects of sport is the number of people who freely offer their services so that others can play.
Referees, coaches, administrators, assistants, ball people and many others all provide their time so that teams can get out on the paddock.
Now thanks to The Northern Rivers Echo, the NSW Department of Sport and Recreation and Lismore City Council sportspeople have a chance to acknowledge sports volunteers by nominating people for the North Coast Volunteers of the Year Awards.
Regional director of the department of Sport and Rec Paul Hernage believes the awards will help recognise this valuable contribution made to sport.
'The awards are aimed at showing community appreciation for individuals who volunteer their services so that local sport can exist,' Hernage said.
'To make this a reality community sport and recreation organisations are asked to nominate volunteers from their organisation who deserve recognition. Nominees are to be individuals who demonstrate outstanding contributions to their organisation and should be in good standing with their sport. Spectators are not eligible as volunteers,' he said.
The awards are designed not as a competition but rather as a way to show community appreciation for individuals who selflessly give their time so that local sport can exist.
Nomination forms can be obtained through your sporting club, at the department of Sport and Rec offices, at Lismore City Council Offices or at The Northern Rivers Echo (218 Molesworth Street, Lismore). For more details check the display advertisement on this page.
A Diamond Shines
 Olympic medallist Michael Diamond at the Lismore Clay Target Club last weekend with Nathaniel and Toby Griffiths and their parents Simon and Donna. More than $3,500 was raised at a charity shoot for the Cancer Care unit at the Lismore Base Hospital.
Nathaniel and Toby Griffiths of the first Lismore Scouts were busy cooking up a storm at the Lismore Clay Target Club last Sunday as part of their Scouts community service requirement.
The barbecue was in honour of a charity shoot in aid of the Cancer Care Unit at the Base Hospital and the volunteers who work there.
The boys were able to show off their culinary skills to one of their heroes, dual Olympic Gold medallist, Michael Diamond.
Diamond was on hand to demonstrate the eagle-eye that won him gold medals in clay target shooting at both the Atlanta and Sydney games.
More than $3,500 was raised for through the efforts of the Clay Target members, businesses in Casino, Lismore, Ballina and Lennox Head, cancer care staff and volunteers, and the scouts. The money will be used to improve patient comfort, train new volunteers and provide ongoing training for existing volunteers.
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