BIG WEEKEND IN POLOCROSSE
Pollocrosse
SOME of Australia’s best polocrosse players are expected in Casterton this weekend, with the club’s annual tournament their last chance for match-practice in the lead up to the Australian Polocrosse Nationals.
Casterton Polocrosse Club President, Justin Carlin said with the Casterton grounds in terrific condition and all grades from subbies or learners, to open to be hosted over two days, this year’s tournament would be spectacular for players and spectators.
“We’re expecting to see the state’s best open men’s and women’s players, we’ve got Under 21 players coming for the nationals, the Under 16 juniors,” Carlin said.
“Players will be using (the Casterton carnival) as the last opportunity to get their horses right, get players up to scratch, make sure they’re ready for the nationals in Ballarat in two weeks’ time.
“We’re expecting a lot of players from South Australia and right across to Gippsland.”
Casterton is expected to host teams in all grades, however numbers and entries were not finalised at time of going to print.
The annual Casterton Polocrosse Tournament kicks off from 8am, Saturday morning, with finals expected to start around 11am Sunday.
The event is fully-catered with bar and barbecue facilities on-site.
A sit-down dinner will follow Saturday’s games and live band, No Plans, entertaining the crowd until late Saturday night.
Visitors hit the courts
Croquet
Jan Cancey
CROQUET on Saturday was cancelled due to the court being very wet.
On Thursday, however, being a bit hot to play at 1.30pm it was decided to play in the evening and we were accompanied by visitors to our town, Pat and Bob from the Bullsbrook Croquet Club in Western Australia.
Pat and Bob have been traveling around Australia for a few months and have managed to play a few games at many of the towns they have passed through.
They enjoyed the experience as did our players and were very eager to play in our Saturday competition, but unfortunately the weather had other ideas.
Enjoy your trip back home, Pat and Bob.
Safe travels and thanks for the visit.
New club records set
FISHING
BRIAN MURRELL
THE results of the fishing competition held over the weekend of 5 and 6 March by the Casterton Angling Society was a carbon copy of the previous one.
Brian Murrell took out senior heaviest fish with a redfin weighing 1.031 kilograms and Terry Sealey the heaviest bag with two bream and three redfin weighing 3.174 kilograms.
The redfin came from Konongwootong Reservoir and bream from the Glenelg River just below the junction with Wannon River.
The redfin weighed by Murrell takes over as ‘heaviest of the year’ and one of Sealey’s bream weighed 1.020 kilograms and takes over as heaviest for that species.
Six anglers braved the wild wet and windy weather conditions to try their luck and weighed eight fish for total weight of 5.129 kilograms.
The next competition will be on Sunday, 20 March 2022, fishing the Glenelg River from 7am to 5pm with the weigh-in at Island Park.
Cats blitz to reclaim spot in the four
Football
A SEVEN-goal final quarter cemented a massive 100-point win for the Cats in round six of the Limestone Coast Women’s Football League.
A disappointing day against Mundulla last week saw the Cats temporarily slip from fourth place in the competition table but going into Friday’s match as favourites against the Millicent Saints, were good odds to claim back a top-four spot.
The Cats controlled the ball throughout much of the match and despite the windy conditions, their five attempts in front of the posts had them leading by 15 points at the first break, while the Saints had yet to trouble the scorers.
With their zone set-up working well and confident of keeping play in their forward half, the Cats went on a shooting spree in the second, but could only manage two majors from their nine scoring shots.
“We decided that anyone that was within 20 metres of goals should back themselves and have a shot,” Cat Scarlett Jarrad said.
The Cats settled in the third quarter, adding another three goals to their tally before kicking it up another gear in the last to almost double their three-quarter-time total, while keeping the Saints scoreless.
The win put the Cats back in the four, with a three-and-three record from their six matches, this season.
The Cats head to Kongorong to play the home side on Thursday night and on 27 March, will host league powerhouse, South Gambier, at Island Park.
Results
Casterton Sandford 2.3 4.10 7.13 14.16 (100)
Millicent 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 (0)
GOALS: Casterton Sandford – Sophie Arkun, Lauren Sykes 3, Gabi Sullivan 2, Makayla Hutchins, Scarlett Jarrad, Zhane Crawford, Chloe Foster 1. Millicent – No goal kickers recorded.
BEST: Casterton Sandford – Sophie Arkun, Zhane Crawford, Gabrielle Sullivan, Lauren Sykes, Scarlett Jarrad, Chloe Smith. Millicent – Laura Chester, Chloe Gronn, Michelle Robinson, Lauren Potter, Megan Tilby, Amy-Lee Hay.
Big weekend for Hughes Memorial
GOLF
MARION COWLAND
Saturday
PETE Hutchins and Phil Niewand along with Sandra McGann and Denise Newell were the respective men’s and women’s winners of the John and Mona Hughes Memorial Day at the Casterton Golf Club last Saturday.
The annual Pinehurst event was the opening day of the 2022 golf season.
Golf club life member, Ken Bibby, officially opened the new golfing season and wished everyone a very successful year.
Pinehurst is a two-person team format and every hole begins with both players hitting drives.
Then they switch golf balls.
Golfer A hits Golfer B’s ball, from where B’s drive came to rest and Golfer B plays Golfer A’s ball.
After their second shots, the partners select the best ball and from the third stroke on, they play alternate shots until the ball is holed.
Results
MEN’S winners: Pete Hutchins and Phil Niewand 80 – 13 – 67.
Women’s winners: Sandra McGann and Denise Newell 92 – 26 – 66.
Men’s runners-up: Steve Koch and Jesse Smith 80 – 12.5 – 67.5.
Women’s runners-up: Georgie Bibby and Marion Cowland 102 – 28.5 – 73.5
Nearest the pins: 2nd Ken Bibby and Denise Newell, 8th Adam Waters, 13th Steve Hindson, 17th Jesse Smith and Denise Newell.
Wednesday Women
THE women played the Opening Day of the 2022 women’s golf season at the Casterton Golf Club last Wednesday.
Golf club life member, Shirley Wilson, welcomed everyone and officially opened the season.
The event was a drawn Ambrose competition.
The winning team was Denise Newell, Kay Sims and Carla Brody with nett 68 1/6.
Runners-up were Sally Houlihan and Margaret Ferguson with nett 70 ¼.
Third place was Sandra McGann and Michele Radford with nett 70 ½.
Nearest the pins: 2nd and 8th Sally Houlihan.
Longest putt on the 9th was Shirley Koch.
Today (Wednesday, 9 March) is Monthly Medal Day and first round of the women’s championship qualifying.
All women’s golf will continue to hit-off from 9am for the remainder of March.
Following the day’s play will be the presentation of the summer trophies.
Wednesday Men
A GOOD day for the 21 players weather wise for golf but our newly cored, sanded and seeded greens caused many problems.
This was evident when the best score of the day 32 points was recorded by no less than eight players, so a huge job for our adjudicator to determine a clear winner.
It was Brian Leak who won from Steve Hindson with all players asking why they missed that last putt which would have given them the win.
NTPs were Max Richardson on the 2nd, Ewan Herring 8th and 13th and Adam Waters, 17th.
Who was that player who failed to score on the first 4 holes but celebrated wildly on the 5th when he scored his first point?
It’s not often you see a grown man near to tears but that was nearly the case today.
He was glad his thoughts of going home after nine passed as he managed to come good on the last nine to record 20 points.
Mixed results in first week of finals
TENNIS
SUZIE NIEWAND
THE first week of the tennis finals has been completed and while the qualifying finals were quite one-sided, the elimination matches produced some very close contests – the A Grade result decided in a two-set tiebreaker!
Qualifying finals: A Grade: Carapook def Coleraine 37 games to 13: O. Edge-M. Cowland d C. Robinson-L. Lyons 6-1, D. Cleary-R. Newell d E. Warnock-S. Armstrong 6-2, O. Edge-D. Cleary d C. Robinson-E. Warnock 7-5, M. Cowland-R. Newell d L. Lyons-S. Armstrong 6-2, O. Edge-R. Newell d C. Robinson-S. Armstrong 6-0, M. Cowland-D. Cleary d L. Lyons-E. Warnock 6-3. B Grade: Sandford White def Catholic 32 games to 16: A. Rees-R. Brown lt G. Johnson-S. Kelly 2-6, T. Matthews-L. Matthews d J. Hausler-L. Beauglehall 6-4, A. Rees-T. Matthews d G. Johnson-J. Hausler 6-2, R. Brown-L. Matthews d S. Kelly-L. Beauglehall 6-2, A. Rees-L. Matthews d G. Johnson-L. Beauglehall 6-0, R. Brown- T. Matthews d S. Kelly-J. Hausler 6-2.
Elimination finals: A Grade: Konong def Nareen 35 games to 34: A. Munro-K. Dwyer d A. Waters-A. Harvey 6-2, A. Lambert-M. Munro lt P. Waters-N. Schembri 3-6, A. Munro-A. Lambert d A. Waters-P. Waters 6-1, K. Dwyer-M. Munro lt A. Harvey-N. Schembri 2-6, A. Munro-M. Munro lt A. Waters-N. Schembri 2-6, K. Dwyer-A. Lambert d A. Harvey-P. Waters 6-4. Tiebreaker: A. Munro-K. Dwyer d A. Waters-A. Harvey 6-3, A. Lambert-M. Munro lt P. Waters-N. Schembri 4-6. B Grade: Sandford Red def Gritjurk 36-28: A. O'Connell-J. Carlin d O. McClure-J. Staude 7-5, S. Niewand-J. Zylstra d K. Humphries-R. Paton 6-2, A. O'Connell-S. Niewand lt O. McClure-K. Humphries 4-6, J. Carlin-J. Zylstra lt J. Staude-R. Paton 6-7, A. O'Connell-J. Zylstra d O. Edge-R. Paton 6-2, J. Carlin-S. Niewand d J. Staude-K. Humphries 7-6.
With Carapook and Sandford White winning straight through to the grand finals and Nareen and Gritjurk eliminated, Coleraine will now play Konong at Coleraine in the A Grade preliminary and Catholic will face Sandford Red at Island Park in the B Grade preliminary, Thursday evening from 7pm.
