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Byron Bay tennis Mullumbimby swim aces state award meet draws 200
Nation’s best bowlers in town for Ocean Shores Classic Fours
Competitors launch into their race at the Petria Thomas Memorial Pool last Sunday. Photo supplied
Andrew Bates with the Tennis NSW award at the Byron Bay Tennis Club. Photo Jeff Dawson Byron Bay Tennis Club has been named the Most Outstanding (Country) Tennis Club at the 2019 Tennis NSW Awards held last week. The accolade was recognition that the club has put a renewed focus on becoming a community facility from 2012. This lead to securing major investments in the facilities, as well as boosting membership and participation across the board, club coordinator Andrew Bates said. ‘Over this time registered players have gone from 60 to over 2000, and we have 200 children playing on a weekly basis,’ he said. ‘The club has invested over $100,000 on upgrades to the clubhouse and with Tennis NSW and Byron council we were able to obtain a grant for $150,000 to
upgrade, resurface and fence the whole facility,’ he said. This year the club hosted the Todd Woodbridge cup and 90 players from local schools participated in the event. Eight students from St Finbarr’s have gone on to compete in the finals in Sydney. The club also hosted a Pro-Am event with Sam Groth, former Davis cup player and record holder for the fastest serve in the world. ‘The event was a huge success,’ Andrew said. ‘Our Adult Social play has been an incredible success and is booked out every week. All in all, the club has become a great community hub for all the local community to come and play tennis.’ The Tweed Heads Regional Tennis Centre was also nominated for the award.
Byron Bay cricketers earn double victory The Byron Bay cricket club remains undefeated across the seniors as both grades collected wins last Saturday. In the Coastal League, second-grade were sent in to bat playing away to Terranora, and scored 5/334 off 40 overs with M Bear top scoring with 101 n.o. M Loane supported with 79 runs. Best for Terranora was A Colivas who picked up 2/73 off eight overs. In reply Terranora scored 4/240. The openers started strongly with S Harris scoring 91 and D Russel adding 61, but first and second drop couldn’t make meaningful contributions and the innings came to an end with M Sutton on 42
n.o and J Singh 21 n.o. Best bowling for Byron was M Irwin with 2/40. In the Ballina District Cricket Association thirdgrade fixture at Byron Recreation Grounds, the home team won the toss and sent Mullumbimby/Brunswick into the field. Byron scored 9/323 led by L Clayton (98 n.o.) and captain M Larsson (95). In reply Mullumbimby/ Brunswick reached 7/243 in their allotted 40 overs. The win puts Byron’s thirds on top of the table above Alstonville Leftovers and Bangalow, while Byron second-grade is on top, ahead of Lennox Head and Terranora.
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Over 200 swimmers from 15 clubs took part in the Mullumbimby Swim Club’s Halloween Qualifying Meet held at the Petria Thomas Memorial Pool last Sunday. Competitors came from as far as Grafton, the Gold Coast, Twin Towns, Casino and Brisbane, as well as local clubs including Alstonville, Kingscliff, Lismore and Murwillumbah. Swimmers were aiming to qualify for the North Coast championships in November. Mullumbimby swim club
had 13 swimmers competing, with several personal-best times recorded. The team included Georgina MorleyMiller, Natasha Fraser, Davide Irace, Zara Morris, Pia Brittain, Sara Irace, Leon Weir, Rio Carter, Grace Creighton, Daniel Irace, Jonti Beale, Mira Brittain and Asha Brittain. Mullumbimby swim club is a small and friendly club and always welcomes new members. The club will run a second carnival in March 2020.
Byron FC beat Hornets to stay on top of SYL
Classic Fours winners (L-R): Matthew Phillips, Brett Hughes, Andrew Chapman and Keith Smith. Photo supplied A team from Northmead (Sydney) has topped a stellar field of bowlers to win the Great Northern Classic Fours presented by the Ocean Shores Country Club. ‘The annual event has become a must in the calendar of many of the country’s top bowlers,’ the club’s bowls director Janine Howell said. ‘Many Australian and State representatives from all over the country were in the field of 28 teams, including current Australian
Open Singles Champions Aron Sherriff and last week’s $100,000 Everest of Bowls winner, Nathan Rice,’ she said. Eventual winners, after a very challenging two days of bowls, were the team from Northmead Club. Runners-up were; Scott McLachlan, Joshua Lark, Jason Heath and Sean Baker from Brisbane. ‘It was another great weekend of bowls at our club, we look forward to next year,’ Janine said.
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Ethan Archer (white) was a midfield rock for Byron Bay FC against Goonellabah. Photo supplied Byron Bay FC have kept up the undefeated start to their title defence as they defeated Goonellabah Hornets 2–0 in round three of the Summer Youth League. Going into the match, it was critical Byron Bay got maximum points with both South Lismore and Alstonville also undefeated. The Rams got off to a perfect start, getting the lead in one of their first attacks of the match. With the ball in the front third, Goonellabah committed a foul allowing Diego Vazquez to score his first goal of the competition: a free kick into the back of the net. It was a well-needed early goal and before Goonellabah knew what hit them, Byron had doubled their lead when Zahi Addis was dragged down in the penalty area. He converted
the spot kick. Shell-shocked, the Hornets went into damage limitation mode: shutting up shop to avoid any further goals conceded. From that point on, the match turned into a battle with no team giving the other any space to play. Goonellabah worked hard to stop Byron creating any more goals but in doing so they sacrificed their own ability to create opportunities with Byron’s Ethan Archer easily cutting off their attacks and winning the ball in midfield. In the end it was a comfortable win for Byron Bay. The Rams play their first home match of the season this Friday against rivals South Lismore. All welcome at the Byron Memorial Recreation Grounds for an 8pm kick off.
Nyxie Ryan in a warm-up session at Huntington Beach in California (USA). Photo Ben Reed/ISA Crystal Cylinders Nyxie Ryan from Lennox Head is representing Australia while competing at the 2019 VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championship held at Huntington Beach in California. The 16-year-old Ryan is a member of the twelve-strong Australian Team and is their top-ranked surfer in the women’s U/18 division. More than 340 surfers from a record-matching 44 nations make up the championships. Nyxie is the seventh seed in the field of 78 surfers
in her division. Seeding is based on the final position of each team in last year’s championships where Team Australia finished third, with teams in overall seeding order and then in order of individual surfers within their team. Looking through the list of Ryan’s competitors it appears she has the credentials to be comfortably in the top ten performers and potentially a finalist. Historically, the ISA has served as a glimpse into the future stars of the sport with several professional world champions on the winners roll.
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