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Bombers shot down by dogged Devils 17-day Surf Fest underway at Tweed John Campbell
Crystal Cylinders
It’s a bit late in the day for Byron’s Red Devils to be showing their true colours, but it is immensely satisfying to see the boys at last rack up some hard-earned wins. Before a crowd of 3,814, the Devils threw a spanner in the works of the Evans Head Bombers’ NRRRL finals ambitions with a pulsating 24– 20 victory. It was one of those games in which the full-time hooter could not arrive a minute too soon, as Evans charged at Byron’s line after staging a relentless comeback from being down 24–4. Nearing the fag-end of the season, Byron’s starting thirteen barely resembled that of their round-one lineup, but a handful of die-hards were there – captain Ryan ‘The Crab’ O’Connell, Billy ‘The Lion’ and Noel ‘Hairy Legs’ King, ‘The Hair Bear’ Joey McCarthy, Martin ‘Liam’ Gallagher – and they all contributed heaps. The Devils looked the sharper, more cohesive outfit from the get-go. Fullback Brett ‘Sidestep’ Kelly jinked his way through to open the scoring, then five-eighth Adam ‘Ant’ Gordon kicked to the Bombers’ in-goal. Showing blistering speed, King arrived to snaffle the try and with Gordon’s fab side-
Competition will be stiff at the 2017 Australian Surf Festival underway on the Tweed Coast and set to run for a marathon 17 days. Interstate entrants will come up against a strong field of local athletes keen to win an illustrious national title on home turf with four major events being run and won at the ASF. Competitors have to qualify through state titles to represent their region at the pinnacle event for amateur surfers in Australia. First up is the Open Surfmasters that comprises open and age divisions in the shortboard discipline followed by the Australian Longboard Titles, Australian Logger Titles and finishing with the Australian Bodyboard Titles. Three new Australian Champions were crowned in the Open Men’s, Open Women’s and Over-35 Men’s divisions at Duranbah at the Surfmasters so far. Lennox Head’s Mikey McDonagh started with a heat win but was eliminated in the quarterfinals in a close battle in the open men’s competition. The O/40s, O/45s, O/50s and O/60s in the shortboards will finish this week. Lennox Head’s Max Perrot and Byron Bay’s Neil Cameron are representing NSW in the Over-50s and Over-60s divisions respectively.
Byron’s wily veteran, Noel ‘Hairy Legs’ King, weighs up his options at Red Devil Park on Sunday. Photo John Campbell
line conversion, the Bay were ahead 12–0. Evans jagged one back on the break, but it didn’t seem to matter because, early in the second forty, Kelly gathered a gorgeous bounce to score from a Ben ‘Nugget’ Webber kick and King collected his second after Gordon chipped inch-perfect behind the Bombers’ compressed defence. Like a fart in a lift though, bad news snuck in as the Bombers’ bigger forwards started to take their toll on the tiring Devils. Evans had a sniff and when their man-bun, halfback dummied and ran fifty to the white chalk, a sickly feeling of ‘oh no’ came over the ground. The Devils had done enough to get the points in
the first seventy, but as so often happens in footy, they had to hang on to seal the deal in the last ten. They did that because they were brave and because they played like a team with belief and passion.
Giant loss The Mullumbimby Giants are still one point ahead of Byron on the NRRRL table despite enduring another heavy loss, 62–4, playing against Murwillumbah on the weekend. The Giants haven’t been able to regain their earlyseason form that saw them beat Murwillumbah 16–10 in round three, and their slump has not seen them win a game since mid-May. Byron Bay have a game in hand on the ladder.
Ben named lifeguard of the year Community-oriented Ben Mortimer (21) has been named as Ballina Lifeguard of the Year for 2016/17. Ben faced an extremely challenging situation on the second day of the patrol season when he was among the first on the scene of a shark attack at Lighthouse Beach. Ben provided initial first aid treatment while also conducting crowd control. Throughout the season he was involved in responding to a number of other incidents including on-water searches and tube rescues. Ben doubles up as patrol captain at Ballina SLSC, a position he has held for the past three years, and also had an extremely busy season as an employee of the Australian Lifeguard Service. One of Ben’s key strengths has been his communication ability with members of the public. Before the start of every shift, Ben placed the Lifeguard tent as close as possible to the flagged area to ensure
Title for Jai
Ben Mortimer dealt with a range challenges to be named Ballina Lifeguard of the Year. Photo contributed
he would have no problem interacting with visitors and locals alike. These efforts did not go unnoticed and Ben enjoyed his role of informing people about the workings of the ALS and also passing on surfsafety tips to the public. Ben has also been providing coverage for the ALS at Byron Bay and Lennox Head
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throughout the off season. ALS Northern Coordinator Scott McCartney said this recognition was a richly deserved reward for an impressive young man. ‘Ben has proved himself to be a professional and valued member of the ALS team, and has enjoyed a highly successful season on the beach,’ he said.
The Havaianas NSW Grommet State Titles competitors faced huge waves at Maroubra so Surfing NSW opted to postpone the second day of the event, and then shifted south to Malabar where competitors were greeted by 0.6-metre lefthanders. Jai Glinderman from Lennox Head ensured a NSW Title would be heading north, claiming the U/14 Boys division. The powerful naturalfooter synced his game-plan perfectly with the punchy lefthanders, nailing a bombardment of impressive backside snaps to post a 15.5 twowave heat total and take the final ahead of fellow north coast native Touma Cameron from Byron Bay. All finalists have qualified for the upcoming Surf Dive N Ski Australian Junior Surfing Titles, which takes place in Culburra on the NSW
Surfmaster Neil Cameron. Photo Smith/SNSW
South Coast in November/ December. Lennox Head’s Jack
O’Brien also qualified for the Australian Titles with a sixthplace finish.
AUGUST 2017
Full moon Third quarter New moon First quarter Day of Sun Sun month rise set 1 T 0629 1715 2 W 0628 1716
Aug 8 04:10 Aug 15 11:14 Aug 22 04:30 Aug 29 18:12 Moon Moon High tide, Low tide, rise set height (m) height (m) 1212 0049 0241,1.16; 1610,1.36 0901,0.47; 2229,0.68 1251 0141 0349,1.12; 1706,1.44 0958,0.46; 2332,0.62
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
1333 1418 1506 1558 1651 1746 1843 1940 2037 2136 2236 2338
T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T
0627 0627 0626 0625 0624 0624 0623 0622 0621 0620 0619 0618 0618 0617 0616 0615 0614 0613 0612 0611 0610 0609 0608 0607 0605 0604 0603 0602 0601
1716 1717 1717 1718 1718 1719 1719 1720 1721 1721 1722 1722 1723 1723 1724 1724 1725 1725 1726 1726 1727 1727 1728 1728 1729 1729 1730 1730 1731
Astronomical data and tides
0233 0323 0412 0500 0545 0628 0709 0748 0826 0904 0942 1022 1106 1153 1246 1343 1444 1548 1652 1755 1855 1954 2051 2146 2240 2333
0455,1.11; 1753,1.51 0549,1.14; 1836,1.59 0645,1.17; 1815,1.65 0716,1.21; 1953,1.70 0756,1.25; 2030,1.73 0834,1.28; 2105,1.74 0914,1.31; 2141,1.73 0954,1.34; 2216,1.69 1036,1.36; 2254,1.62 1122,1.37; 2333,1.53 1213,1.38 0018,1.43; 1312,1.39 0114,1.32; 1420,1.43 0040 0222,1.22; 1535,1.50 0144 0341,1.18; 1646,1.60 0246 0458,1.19; 1748,1.71 0346 0604,1.23; 1844,1.81 0443 0700,1.29; 1933,1.86 0534 0750,1.34; 2019,1.88 0620 0836,1.38; 2101,1.84 0703 0920,1.40; 2141,1.76 0742 1002,1.40; 2217,1.65 0819 1044,1.39; 2253,1.52 0855 1125,1.36; 2328,1.39 0932 1209,1.33 1009 0004,1.26; 1300,1.30 1047 0049,1.14; 1404,1.29 1128 0025 0152,1.05; 1516,1.31 1212 0116 0313,1.01; 1623,1.36
1051,0.43 0022,0.54; 1138,0.39 0104,0.47; 1220,0.35 0141,0.41; 1259,0.30 0215,0.36; 1335,0.27 0248,0.32; 1414,0.25 0322,0.30; 1452,0.25 0357,0.28; 1532,0.27 0433,0.28; 1615,0.32 0512,0.29; 1703,0.39 0553,0.31; 1759,0.47 0640,0.33; 1906,0.55 0735,0.35; 2030,0.58 0838,0.36; 2159,0.55 0945,0.33; 2317,0.47 1049,0.28 0019,0.36; 1148,0.22 0112,0.27; 1243,0.16 0157,0.20; 1332,0.13 0238,0.17; 1418,0.13 0317,0.17; 1503.0.17 0355,0.20; 1547,0.24 0430,0.24; 1630,0.34 0504,0.30; 1716,0.45 0539,0.36; 1807,0.55 0617,0.41; 1909,0.63 0704,0.46; 2030,0.67 0802,0.50; 2156,0.65 0910,0.51; 2303,0.58
Times are Eastern Standard. Time lags: Ballina Boat Dock: 15 min; Byron Bay: nil; Brunswick River Hwy Bridge: high 30 min, low 1 hr; Mullumbimby: 1 hr 10 min; Billinudgel: 3 hr 55 min; Chinderah: high 1 hr 15 min, low 2 hr; Terranora Inlet: high 2 hr 10 min, low 2 hr 25 min; Murwillumbah: high 2 hr 30 min, low 2 hr 50 min. Tides in bold indicate high tide of 1.7m or more and low tide of 0.3m or less. Data courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology.
The Byron Shire Echo August 2, 2017 53