Sports News

Hooks and Slices

with Stan Bendall

NRDGA

A team of five seniors and three juniors will be representing the district this weekend at the NSW Country Championships in Bathurst. They all come from clubs at the northern end of the District. A reminder to all clubs to send in low-markers' names in to the match committee chairman, Fred Causley, in order that they can be in the running for selection to represent the Northern Rivers.

The next meeting of the NRDGA delegates will be on Tuesday night at the Lismore Workers Club, commencing with the executive meeting at 6pm and the delegates at 6.30pm.

Ballina

The club will be hosting an interclub event against Byron Bay this Saturday. A 4BBB will be played by the men with the ladies playing a single stoke event. Brownies will be playing their foursomes championship on Sunday.

Athol Dodd took out the overall on Saturday with Gerry Connors getting up in A Grade and James Hackett winning B grade.

Casino

This Saturday will be a four-person team stableford. The worst score for each team to be dropped. Twin brothers Mal and Matt Kenny, both playing off a handicap of 25, were the winners of last weekend's teams' event.

Kyogle

Saturday will be a single stableford event. John Adams and Joe Gibson were the winners last Saturday in the 4-ball with a score of 54.

Lismore

Lismore golfers will travel to Mullumbimby for the Starr Cup interclub event on Saturday. A single stableford will be played at Lismore on the day. The final of the shootout will commence at 9.30am on Sunday. Lismore won the annual Bartlett-Clarke shield against the visiting Coraki golfers last weekend.

Woodburn Evans Head

This Saturday's round will be an aggregate stroke event. The Ladies A grade winner was Dot Cox with Rosanne Kinnane winning B grade. Kevin Saville won the veterans section. Last Saturday Warren Woodcock won overall with Betty O'Grady winning the ladies.

Charity golf days

There will be charity golf days hosted by both Yamba and Lismore Workers golf clubs early in November.

On Sunday, November 2, I will be running a day for Camp Quality at Yamba to benefit children with cancer. The following Sunday at the Lismore course Rotary will host a day to raise money for local children's charities.

Both days will feature a four person ambrose with a shotgun start from midday after a barbie at 11am.

Hook, Line and Sinker

with Lindsay Doust - Suffolks Sports Store

The good times are on their way

There have been some good reports coming in from Woodburn, Lismore and Ballina. One report of over 40 bream and flathead on soft plastics from around the Porpoise Wall at Ballina. It should be a sure sign of good summer fishing just around the corner.

Bass are still on the go on lures. We only hope that anglers who target this species realise their vulnerability and are prepared to release the majority of their catch.

Jewfish (mulloway) have been taken in good numbers from the Ferry at Ballina to Wardell. Most of these were schoolies but the occasional good jew continues to be taken from the Ballina South Wall.

New South Wales Fisheries regulations are set after scientific research and we trust the experience of experienced anglers. That is why there are bag limits and legal sizes. The aim is to allow each small fish that manages to grow past the fingerling stage to breed at least once, and hopefully, many times. What we also know is that the largest fish are our best brood stock.

For every angler, it is great to get a trophy fish every now and then but the future of every species depends upon our being willing to release the majority of our big fish for future breeding. I remember some years ago when George Tunsted caught the flathead of the year, weighed her in and released her a short time later. Now I know there will be other anglers who do that and we encourage more and more to begin doing it. After all, the smaller fish of legal size are always the better eating.

This weekend has top times for fishing for those who like comfortable hours. From 2pm until dark on Saturday and Sunday should get you a good feed.

Plateau team start at the summit

Dale Ledger turns a ball from Souths Craig Bateman to fine leg on his way to 37 for Easts in their successful run chase against Souths at Oakes Oval on Saturday.

Mark Symes of Easts sends down a searching delivery to Marist Brothers Angus Griffith in 2nd grade action at Richards Oval on Saturday. The photo creates an optical illusion in that the ball was hit hard into the ground before travelling fast to the leg side forward of the wicket.

Alstonville have started the season in fine style recording the only outright win of the opening round of the LJ Hooker League. Setting Lennox Head a target of 159 in the first innings the Alstonville bowlers, led by Terry Murphy (3-14) dismissed Lennox for just 81. Alstonville captain Gary Boyd declared on their second dig at 1-30 after just four overs.

Lennox, needing 109 to win, were on track at 2-62 and again at 4-79 but Murphy stepped in to claim 5-29 for match figures of 8-43.

Defending premiers Eastern Districts saw off the Souths target of 141 thanks to some solid batting by Jake McKinnon (43), Mark Robb (38) and overnight batsman Dale Ledger (37). Easts finished with 9-166 on the difficult Oakes Oval pitch.

Casino pulled off an upset by knocking off defending premiers Tintenbar East Ballina in a nail-biter. Tintenbar made 196 to set Casino a stern test. At 5-170 the Casino chase looked to be on target, but three quick wickets had them struggling at 8-172. Fast bowling pair Al Nowlan (14 n.o.) and Dylan Huntley (13 n.o.) saw off the challenge, taking Casino through to 8-199 and first innings points.

The Ballina Bears disposed of Brunswick Valley easily at Fripp Oval. The 'Wicks had set Ballina a reasonable total of 187. Ballina had knocked off 33 of those runs the previous Saturday and set about the chase with purpose. All four top order batsmen contributed, with Lee Barnett top-scoring with 71 not out. The Bears finished with 8-238.

Marist Brothers never looked like challenging the daunting 8-325 set by Norths Goonellabah RSL. Given the monumental size of the chase, and the fact that Brothers had just 19 on the board with three batsmen back in the dressing room, the Brethren did well to take most of the day reaching 154 to shut out any opportunity of an outright.

Cooper barrels over Tweed

Young Easts batsman Tom Cooper bounced back from a disappointing innings of just one against Souths in the first round of the LJ Hooker League to belt 116 for Lismore against Tweed in their Country Cup encounter on Sunday.

Supported by the middle order, Cooper, a State Under 17 player, led the Lismore Association teams to an impressive total of 6-276 off their 50 overs.

A shell-shocked Tweed side, although playing on their home turf at Kingscliff, were bundled out for just 77 in reply. Jerry Deal took the wicket of the top four Tweed batsmen and finished with 4-20 off eight overs.

Lismore have now moved into the second round of the Country Cup and will host Ballina on Sunday, November 2.

On Tuesday the LDCA held over any decision over striking charges against Souths reserve grade captain Robert Pickford until after police charges are heard. The unpires association will hear charges against umpire John Lowe arising from the Pickford incident in the Souths reserve grade game against Norths on October 11.

Chapman run a sister act

More than $7,000 was raised for the NSW Cancer Council at the 11th annual Darrel Chapman Fun Run on Sunday morning at Southern Cross University.

The event attracted 230 starters, ranging from elite athletes from Brisbane and the Gold Coast, through to family groups enjoying a Sunday morning outing (stroll) together.

Ashlea Gilfillan

Jessie Gilfillan

The event commemorates Darrel Chapman, a leading sports administrator, academic and rugby league international, who lost his fight against cancer in 1992.

Matthew Steel

Blind runner Robert Dingle lined up for his third Darrel Chapman Fun Run, this time with the help of a guide, Paige Wieland, and his trusty guide dog Brittany. This was the first time that Robert had used a human guide. Last year he completed the course with just Brittany by his side. The year before he went around the circuit with the assistance of his white cane.

The women's event featured a double by Gold Coast sisters Jessie and Ashlea Gilfillan, formerly of Lismore. Ashlea, 17, was the first woman home in the six-kilometre event, while little sister, Jessie, 11, easily won the three-kilometre run. Three weeks ago Jessie broke the Australian Primary School's record for 800m and 1500m at the National Public schools championships in Darwin.

Matthew Steel of the Toowong Harriers in Brisbane won the 3km in a canter with Michael Chamberlain crossing as first male in the 6km.

Funding to help young indigenous surf lifesavers

Darren Jameso, looking forward to passing on his surf life saving experience.

Darren Jameson of Surf Life Saving NSW has been awarded a grant of $6,470 from The Foundation for Young Australians to help young indigenous people in regional NSW enter surf life saving. The money will be targeted at young indigenous people in eight areas of the state, including Cabbage Tree Island, Ballina, Lennox Head and Lismore.

The grant will support Surf Life Saving NSW's Indigenous Sports Program, which enables young Indigenous people in regional New South Wales to gain access to leadership and sporting opportunities within surf life saving. The funds will cover the expenses of running the program and subsidise participant contributions.

"Surf Life Saving New South Wales is an organisation that embraces membership from all areas of Australian society," Darren said. "The Indigenous Sports Program allows surf life saving to actively promote, in a fun and exciting way, membership within the indigenous communities of NSW. At the same time it gives young indigenous people valuable skills and opportunities useful both to the local community and to the participants."

An announcement on when Darren's program will commence on the north coast will be made shortly.

A platinum duck?

Luke Cleaver (right) with teammate Jessie Rose, after Luke had been mining for precious metals at Richards Oval.

Luke Cleaver is made of stern stuff. This season he has to be.

Luke is an opening batsman for Marist Brothers second grade, who were facing Easts at Richards Oval last weekend.

Luke saw his first ball of the game at the start of the second over, bowled by G (for Gelignite) Frith.

Luke essentially made two very good decisions. Yes, the ball was going to miss his off-stump, and yes, the ball was going to miss his leg-stump. He raised his bat to let the ball pass through to the keeper, which it duly did, being bound by the laws of physics.

So what was the problem? Luke had forgotten to ask himself if the ball was going to miss middle stump, which it duly struck with much scattering of the castle, before making it's way towards the keeper.

So now Luke is the owner of a 'platinum' duck for going out on the first ball he faced for the season.

Luke is actually a promising batsman and is on a promise of a full report and photo in The Echo as soon as he strikes up his first half century of the season.

Torrens home

Manly Sea Eagles NRL star Albert Torrens was a special guest at the recent 'Touch Footy in the Park', held at the Oaks Centre in the North Casino housing estate.

Albert, who originally hails from Casino, was a big hit with the 80 local children who attended.

'Touch Footy in the Park' started as a crime prevention strategy as 'Kids vs Cops' and is now a regular event supported by the Department of Housing's Community Renewal Program and Casino Police.

The initiative also spawned a number of other sporting activities, including the formation of the Casino Comets Touch Football team, runners-up in the Lismore competition last season.