Sports News

Hooks and Slices

with Stan Bendall

Gibson runs hot

Lismore's Rhein Gibson has had an outstanding fortnight, starting with the Australian Junior Interstate series in Tasmania. Rhein won his three matches as New South Wales went on to take the title.

He then followed up with a win in the four day NRDGA Junior and Colts Classic hosted by Murwillumbah. Gibson won both the overall nett and the 17-year-old gross. Rhein then played in the McDonalds Junior Classic in Ballina and won the day with a three over par 75.

Results of the NRDGA Junior and Colts Classic was held over 72 holes of stroke play at Murwillumbah April 22-25:

Overall nett: boys – Rhein Corbett; girls – Bev Malcolmson.

Overall gross: boys: – Ben Gazel; girls – Kay Watson.

Colts nett: boys – Kevin Park

Colts gross: boys – Ben Gazel

17 years gross: boys – Rhein Corbett

17 years nett: boys – Alan Wedd

Unfortunately during the presentations Daniel Morgan, the 14 years nett winner, had his two-week-old Odyssey DFY putter stolen from his bag. Anyone with information should call the Mullumbimby golf club on 6684 2273.

Ballina

This weekend will be the 36-hole stroke-play Maytime Cup with Neil Bullen the favourite to take the title. Last Saturday 95 golfers braved the wet with Brian Rawle winning the day from Boyd Chambers and Greg Andoreen.

Casino

This weekend will combine Saturday's single-stroke May Monthly Medal and the two-day Northern Co-Op Meat Company's Charity Challenge. Proceeds of the Charity Challenge will be distributed to local charities. The normal green fees will apply for members who only wish to enter the Monthly Medal.

The Life Members sponsored single stableford winner was promising youngster Mitchell Montgomery with 40 points, his first victory in the top grade. Tony Snow won B Grade with Gary Ellem getting up in C Grade.

Kyogle

Saturday's Monthly medal will also be the first round of the club championships. Paul Worth and Vic Hurley's recent form will see them start as co-favourites. Last Saturday saw an ‘executive' finish with club president Paul Hurley winning from club captain Peter Schorsy. Trevor Hale won B grade.

Lismore

This Saturday will see the Monthly Medal together with a vardon and eclectic and the third round of the shootout. Byron Bay will be visiting on Saturday week.

Members should keep in mind that the 2nd round of the single match play must be completed by the end of Sunday. Easter Veterans winner, Brian Whelan, continued his good form by taking out A Grade as his playing partner, Toby Dale won B Grade. Thomas Vantaggiato got up for C grade whole Tommy O'Brien proved that he is not a mudrunner by taking out the coveted Bradman award.

There was sad news this week with the passing of club member, businessman and good mate Ian Carrington. Ian, his wife Ros and Craig Hamshaw ran Recycled Sports in Keen Street with another store in Ballina. Ian loved his golf and had his name down for pennants. Condolences from the whole club to his wife Ros and his two daughters. God bless mate.

Woodburn-Evans Head

This Saturday will be the final round of the club championship and a single stroke event.

Round three of the Club title was held in conjunction with the Anzac Cup on Saturday. Jim Clark was the overall and A Grade winner with Jim Pike getting up in B Grade and Dick Boland successful in C Grade. The ladies winner was Faye Riddell.

The open day on Sunday saw Warwick Strong get up from Sav Glavocih in the men's overall with Sav's father, Ric Glavocih taking out the A Grade. Jim Perry won B Grade and C Grade went to Goldo Pagotto. Fay Riddell won the ladies from Irene Crampton. Bernadette Cornelius won Division One nett while Rebecca Rogers was successful in Division Two.

Hook, Line and Sinker

with Lindsay Doust - Suffolks Sports Store

Bream and blackfi sh thrive in the 'fresh'

This illustration of a rainbow trout (pictured above, courtesy of NSW Fisheries) demonstrates some of the terminology used in relation to fish.

It is the first time for many months that the Richmond has turned fresh after the intensive rains of the last few days. At Ballina there has been well over 250 mmfall in the past week. The river is certainly running fresh in Lismore and is very coloured at Ballina on the run out tide. This will be bad news for the bass anglers, particularly those who chase them on lures. Dams are filling rapidly. Clarrie Hall is full and Toonumbar slowly rising.

The fresh water could not have come at a better time for estuary anglers as it is the time of the year that the bream and blackfish begin to be caught in some numbers. This ‘fresh' will bring them down from upstream and often our best bream fishing is in coloured water. Blackfish can also be great sport in coloured water by using your bream rig and fresh yabbies.

Some reports have been of the best class of bream for many years are being pulled in from the South Ballina area. They have been taking pippies as preferred bait. From the South Wall, the reports of school jew are encouraging, along with tailor and trevally. However, watch your vehicle. There have been many break-ins at the South Ballina car park and at least one young fisherman lost close to $1000 with of gear from his vehicle. They say the louts are working in twos and watching as you leave to go fishing, with one acting as a cockatoo back along the wall, watching for other approaching vehicles.

Fishing trips for the year have got under way for places like Swain Reefs, Stanage Bay. A group has just returned from the Montebellos in Western Australia, where they tangled with huge GTs, queen fish and coral trout. Over 30 different species were caught.

Deep sea boats have been largely in the sheds but hopefully a flat sea this weekend will give the opportunity to fish some favourite reefs as the snapper have probably moved onto during the rough weather.

Raining goals for the Bay

Byron Bay proudly displays their Anzac Cup trophy. Inset: Four-goal hero, captain Bruce Morhaus.

In severely testing conditions at Oakes Oval on Friday night, Byron Bay were able to claim their first Anzac Cup with a dominating 7-2 victory over Maclean.

The win came on the back of a stunning four-goal performance by club captain Bruce Morhaus, who was given the last ten minutes of the game on the sideline as a reward for his efforts by coach Vlad Knaus.

It looked as though Maclean were in for a big night when Grant Nielson worked his way through the centre and into space to give Maclean the lead after only five minutes. But as the rain continued to fall the Bay scored seven unanswered goals. Apart from four goals, Tim Bird found the net twice while Glen Sheldrick slotted the seventh goal home. A late penalty to Nielson gave Maclean its second goal.

Thistles, Uni to be tested

In the FNC Soccer Women's First Division all matches were postponed last weekend due to the weather. The competition will get underway on Friday night when Workers and Thistles clash on Lismore's Rec. 12 pitch. Thistles started the season with a bang, slotting in eight goals against Stars but will find the Workers teamwork a sterner test.

The round will be completed on Sunday with two 11am matches. Rovers will host Stars in a potentially one-sided affair. Stars have been belted 8-1 and forfeited their following match – not a great start to the season. The game between SCU and Byron Bay at the university could well be the match of the round. The students have two solid wins under their belt so far while the bay has been impressive even though they have recorded only a draw from their first two games.

Golden Boot Awards

The Echo Golden Boot award will reward the player in Soccer FNC's Premier Division (men) and First Division (women) that scores the most goals in the 2003 home and away season. The winners will receive packages from Trevor Oram's Living Entertainment worth $750.

2002 winner, Italo Stars' Wayne Mortimer, kept his lead with two goals against SCU.

Golden Boot 2003 -Men's Premier Division

5 – Wayne Mortimer (Stars)

3 – Jeremy Pollard (Stars)

2 – Ben Haigh (Alstonville); Adam Bostock (Alstonville); Grant Nielson (Maclean); Andrew Gray (Rovers); Brett Lane (Rovers); James Ivers (SCU); Dan Henderson (Workers).

Top of table clash - FNC Rugby Union

Wollongbar and Ballina will fight it out for top place on the ladder when they clash at Ballina on Saturday.

Both teams have started their season well with two wins. The Pioneers accounted for Mullumbimby easily last weekend while the Ballina Seahorses just got home over Lismore City in a sodden slog at the Lismore Rugby Fields.

Southern Cross, also undefeated, will travel to Byron where they should confirm their intention to successfully defend their title.

Wollongbar dominated a severely short-staffed Mullumbimby on Saturday 57-20. The Pioneers' forwards were able to supply clean ball to their backs all day giving them the initiative throughout the day. The score was 31 –3 at half time with Mullum showing fighting spirit to pull it back to 38-20 before Wollongbar sealed the game with four further tries.

Casino just earned a win against Byron Bay when Matt Allen streaked down the sideline to score from 30 metres out with precious little time left on the clock. The try was converted to give the Bulls an 18-15 victory.

Ballina showed that they posses a rock solid defence during their 15-10 away defeat of Lismore. The tackling was ferocious but without compromising the defensive structure.

A vicious brawl left four players with yellow cards: Ballina's Jamie Coote and Mick McGregor and Lismore's Nigel Marshall and Heath Conlan. Coote was given his marching orders with 30 minutes remaining when he received a second yellow card, leaving the Ballina defence one short. Lismore were able to get over them for a try late in the game but they were unable to pull back the 12-point advantage that Ballina had opened up.

Paddle powers Curtis brothers

Team support member Cassadevi Parker helps Glen Curtis to feed during a portage stage. Glen and his brother Tony are aiming for national rep honours in the future.

Lismore's kayaking brothers Tony, 29, and Glen Curtis, 27, have pushed themselves up the national rankings after finishing 5th and 11th respectively in the 35 kilometre event at the national titles held at Bond University over the Easter weekend.

They also combined for a strong 9th in the doubles.

Rain snuffs out all but Stars - Soccer FNC

The complete round of Women's First Division and all but one of last weekend's men's premier Division matches were postponed due to the heavy rains that have been falling over the region during the past week.

The only top-flight premiership game to be played was the Italo Stars v Southern Cross University fixture at Barrow Lane on Sunday.

The match was a high-scoring entertaining affair with the students showing that they have the potential to make a good fist of their season, regardless of their current ladder position.

SCU were the first to find the back of the net from the head of Ben Andrews but they immediately gave back the ascendancy by conceding a penalty that was slotted home by Max Latimer.

Before the crowd had a chance to catch its breath Uni had regained the lead through an accurate shot from James Ivers that found its way through a maze of flying legs and feet that were crowding out the box.

A 1-2 deficit at half time saw Stars coach Stuart Harris concede that he needed some strike power on the pitch. He brought on Jeremy Pollard and movedWayne Mortimer to striker, who between them had scored five premiership goals coming into the game.

Not long into the second stanza Pollard had scored his third of the season for Stars to draw level.

There was no coming back this time for the students as the most accurate boot in the competition, that of Stars' Wayne Mortimer, collected goals number four and five for the season to give Stars a well-deserved 4-2 victory.

This weekend provides Byron Bay with an opportunity to get off the bottom of the ladder. Their results in the Anzac Cup have shown that they are a very entertaining team who have yet to put it together in the premiership.

They showed that when they have the experience of captain Bruce Morhaus on the field they will be a handful for any club. Morhaus provides the experience on the field that his young squad needs at this stage of their development. While Ballina remains undefeated so far this season they may find the trip to Byron a difficult assignment.

Alstonville will be looking to consolidate on an impressive start to 2003 when they travel to take the students on at the Maurie Ryan Oval on Friday night.

Casino have been the competition surprise packet so far this season but they may find that hosting the in-form Italo Stars a task that brings with it a strong dose of reality. The Casino back line will be under pressure throughout and will be hard pressed to avoid a blow out.

Maclean will have the chance to put their Anzac Cup disappointment behind them when they travel to the winless Thistles on Saturday. While Maclean has a talented list of players they had difficulty in handling the very heavy conditions against Bryon in the Cup final.

Rovers will go into their match against Workers as favourites, having home ground advantage and a much better conversion rate.

Nimbin double-header for Mardi Grass - Aussie Rules

Lismore Swans follower Luke Meldrum takes up prime position for this ruck contest deep into the Demons forward line during the first quarter of their match at Mortimer Oval on Saturday.

In one of the biggest days of the Summerland Australian Football season Nimbin will host a double header this Saturday. The games are scheduled to coincide with the Nimbin Mardi Grass, an event that annually attracts thousands to the small township. It is anticipated that the crowd at the game will be one of the largest in Summerland history.

In the midday match Casino and Byron will lock horns while Nimbin will host Ballina for the annual Sean Dowdal-Stewart Memorial Shield from 2pm. Lismore has the bye.

Byron stumbled in their first outing against Lismore in round two, but their experienced veterans should be the difference. After leading reigning premiers, Ballina, at quarter time recently newcomers Casino should not be underestimated.

The main game should be a thriller at the Demons lair.

With Ballina's slow starts so far this season, the Demons will be very confident of taking an early lead and building on that with the aid of their supporters. Since their return to the SAFL in 2001, Nimbin have set the benchmark for home-ground support. They will need all of this support if they are to wrest back the shield, won by the Bombers in 2002.

The Demon defence showed grit against Lismore last week, and if they can contain the Ballina forwards they will have a strong chance of keeping the shield at home this time.

Wet weather inexperience shows

In a game marred by rain and a wet playing surface the Lismore Swans showed a strong level of self-belief and fitness to win their clash against the Nimbin Demons at Mortimer Oval on Saturday.

Incredibly, for a team that won the match, the Lismore Swans did not have a goal on the scoreboard up to three-quarter time. Reflecting the ball-handling difficulties presented by the extreme weather conditions Nimbin had only been able to put through one major at the same stage of the match.

The final score saw Lismore Swans 5-13-43 defeat the Nimbin Demons 2-8-20.

The ground held up very well under the circumstances but footing was difficult and the ball was extremely greasy.

After a number of years of dry weather football players seem to have forgotten that picking up a ball in wet weather requires two hands; one in front and one behind the ball. If the season stays as wet as it is at the moment this is the skill that could decide the flag.

It was obvious that many of the players in the game had little experience playing in such conditions. The experienced heads within the Swan's camp knew that the most important task was simply to move the ball forward.

Fitness and perseverance paid dividends in the final quarter for the Swans, as they were able to put on five goals to the luckless Nimbin's one.

Lismore Swans 5-13-43 d Nimbin Demons 2-8-20.

The match between the Ballina Bombers and the Byron Shire Magpies was rescheduled to Wednesday night at Schultz Oval, Bangalow.

Casino keeps the pressure on - Rugby League

South Grafton, Casino, Marist Brothers and Byron Bay all remain undefeated as the competition heads into its fourth round. South Grafton have the bye this week and the other three are all playing games that they would expect to win. Byron will travel to Yamba to take on Lower Clarence, underachieving premiers Grafton Ghosts will host Marist Brothers and Casino RSM host Ballina.

The other Round Four match looms as the first tussle over the wooden spoon between Mullumbimby and Kyogle. Mullum have been strong starters and should finally notch up a victory.

In Round Three Casino showed that their 50-0 victory against reigning premiers Grafton Ghosts was no flash in the pan when their defence held Lower Clarence to a miserly six points on Sunday. This allowed Casino to maintain their unbeaten record with a 20-6 victory. Whatever skill was displayed was left in the first half as both teams struggled to come to terms with the conditions as the game progressed.

Byron overcame the Ghosts second half comeback on Sunday to run away with a 14 point victory. Ghosts put it together for a brief period in the second half drawing level at 28-all after being down 28-6 shortly after the break. Byron was able to finish the game with greater stamina and less errors.

South Grafton claimed top place on the ladder with a crushing victory over the Kyogle Turkeys. The Turkeys used the conditions well to stay in the match early, being down just 24-18 at the break. Once South Grafton were able to clear the ruck they found a match winner in Doug Walker who scored four times.

That the Rebels were able to hold Kyogle scoreless while they piled on another 28 points during the second half was came from skillful teamwork and positional play.

Ballina ran over the top of Mullumbimby in the Kingsford Smith Park clash. They prevailed 42-22 after trailing 14-16 at half time. Seagulls five-eighth, Justin Bolt, was able to take full advantage of his forward packs size and strength to dominate the fringes of the ruck and score three tries.

Brothers had the bye.

League shake up in the bush

Group One and Gold Coast Group 18 may cease to exist in their present form within two years.

Terry Quinn, general manager of NSW Country Rugby League has announced that the CRL wants to restructure the sport in the bush.

He envisages a structure that would divide the state into six or seven regions, each employing a CEO who would be responsible for running the competitions.

"You would have a board and a CEO running each of those regions with individual competitions dealing directly to them," said Quinn.

There would be no immediate impact upon Group One as Quinn doesn't believe that the plan for the restructure would be ready before the start of the 2004 season. His first focus will be the Riverina District, which he'll visit for the City v Country match on May 16.

There are a number of changes that are likely to occur. Quinn said that the boundaries of the groups could well change to ensure that the competitions are more viable.

There is bound to be a high level of resistance from within some Groups across the state as many of the existing executives and paid staff will feel as though their positions are threatened by change.

Group One president, Doug Harrison, who has been a part of committee talks at the CRL level to get the initiative underway told The Echo that the CRL had been discussing the restructure since its think tank late last year. The CRL is encouraging discussions to happen at a local level so that the review and restructuring will take full account of local issues and needs.

Group One is likely to be put under the troubleshooting microscope as it has seen two First Grade clubs from the same city (South Lismore and Lismore Workers) collapse within the past few years. However, the nine clubs in the Group each have three grades and the junior numbers are growing.

Of more concern is the Gold Coast/Group 18 competition that runs a junior competition with only five teams, including the Mullumbimby juniors, which were enticed away from Group One earlier this year.

On-target Ballina to feature

A confident Ballina men's team will be a feature of over four hours of interdistrict hockey this Saturday at the Goonellabah hockey centre.

The JH Williams Shield pits the best teams from the Far North Coast and Tweed Border competitions against each other. Ballina were the only Far North Coast victors in the first round.

Fresh from their 6-0 drubbing of Redbirds last week Ballina will line up against Waratahs in the final match of the afternoon.

The action starts at 2.55pm with Easts hosting Redbacks in the women's competition with the men's teams from the same clubs to take to the water-based turf at 4.10pm.

Both Easts and Redbacks are coming off big losses from the first round but each team has a core of young players who will no doubt improve from the experience. They may even threaten at finals time.

The other matches in round two will be played in Murwillumbah.

Coraki will take on Kingscliff in both men's and women's matches while Murwillumbah will face Glee in the women's competition and, in the men's division, Northern Star.

Mullumbimby and Northern Star have the bye in the men's and women's draws respectively.

There will be no interdistrict games the following week, as Lismore will be hosting the NSW Under 17 state championships next week.

Gahan dons the green and gold

Lismore baseballer Matt Gahan will play for Australia.

Marist Brothers pitcher, Matt Gahan, 28, was the winning pitcher in Game 4 of Australia's World Cup qualifying tournament against Guam on Tuesday.

The tournament, being held in Guam, was the only qualifying stage for Australia on their way to the finals in Cuba during October.

The win gave Australia the series 4-1.

Gahan, who spent 2001 and 2002 playing in the minor leagues for the New York Mets, is looking to maintain his place in the national side for the World Cup and olympic qualifiers later this year.

Gahan pitched 8 and a third innings giving up just six hits and one base on balls for no runs and no earned runs.