Sport Social tennis winners crowned at awards night
Home win for Lismore’s women’s rugby
Tim Lanyon After six months of Tuesday night social singles tennis at the Byron Bay Tennis club, Ben ‘Chef Benny’ Warriner outclassed 88 other competitors to lift the winner’s trophy. The weekly event commenced in early January amidst pandemics, floods, hail storms, and heat waves and concluded with the biannual awards night last week. With an emphasis on ‘social’, all levels are welcome to compete in the competition with the points being allocated for more than just wins. Points are awarded for attendance, on-court fashion, community spirit, and to those who bring along extra crackers to contribute towards the platter; all efforts matter.
Social tennis Semester One award winners with dog, Bali. A perpetual trophy is awarded to the player that best exhibits these qualities, and this time around local artist, Geoff Murray, was a popular winner. The ‘Socialite’ award went to Taylor Miller. The competition is a mixed-gender event with players matched according
to their level of play. Nicknames are encouraged and you’re likely to come up against regular players such as ‘Waffles’, ‘Gravy’, ‘The Wall’, ‘Mussels’ or ‘Tay Tay’. Byron Bay Tennis also offers adult squads and group sessions for all levels along with a fun social doubles evening on Thursdays.
Byron Bay beats the rest at BJJ open The Academy Byron Bay won overall first place at the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu winter Australian Open held on Sunday, 17 July at the Cavanbah Centre. The event featured 200 competitors from over 40 academies from around the country. Southside Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from the Gold Coast came in second overall. Byron’s 10-year-old Eva Brooks, got the fastest submission of the day.
Byron dominates NSW croquet State Championships Ross Kendall Local players shone when they took on players from 18 other clubs during the division two golf croquet State Championships jointly hosted by the Byron Bay, Ballina and Cherry Street clubs earlier in July. The singles four-day event was won by Byron Bay club member Dhillon Tiffin, in his first ever competition.
www.echo.net.au
A remarkable achievement considering that he has only been playing for eight months. ‘The first time I saw Dhillon play I told him that he’d make the State team in two years. This is the first step in Dhillon fulfilling that potential,’ Byron Bay Croquet Club (BBCC) coach, Max Donati, said. The singles plate event was won by Byron’s Dennise Simmons 7–6 in nail biting
circumstances. Dhillon Tiffin also starred in the doubles, held over two days, which he won with Werner Borkhardt. Casino player, Leonie Condon, combined with Qld player Marlyn Nelson to take out the doubles plate. Anyone interested in learning the tactical fun game of Golf Croquet can ring Max on 0431 906 536 or Dennise on 0408 857 180.
Lismore City women’s rugby union ten-a-side team sits in third place on the competition ladder, just two points shy of second placed Richmond Range, and Casuarina out in front. In the game before last Saturday’s bye the team had a good home win over Richmond Range 22–5. Photo supplied
SCU becomes nine-time national surf comp winner Ross Kendall Southern Cross University (SCU) is the country’s greatest competitive surfing university after claiming its ninth title at the UniSport Nationals Surfing Championships held on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast last week. The result at Coolum Beach puts Southern Cross ahead of closest rival, the University of Wollongong, with eight titles. Southern Cross University was also crowned overall Women’s Champions after the two-day competition. Leading from the front was Team SCU Captain, Brittani Nicholl, who took out the women’s longboard national title and finished fourth in the shortboard division. The Digital Media and Communications student is a former WSL QS pro-surfer who has also represented and captained Team Australia in the International Surfing Association World Championships. ‘It is one of those sports
Team SCU celebrates the win (L to R): Maddie Parker, Brittani Nicholl, Jesse Carrasco and Ruben Brinsmead (missing Mitch Barraclough). Photo Southern Cross University we do well in, so for us to bring home that title it felt special, not only individually but as a team. It felt good to know we are the best university when it comes to surfing,’ Brittani said. ‘We’re feeling pretty satisfied. We only had a small team of five this year, off the back of covid. To be able to compete against other unis with much bigger teams and still walk away with the win, we’re pretty
happy with that one.’ ‘This is the sixth time in the past ten years that SCU has won the overall surfing championship and the ninth time we have taken it out since the annual university student surfing competition began in 1994,’ said Dave Graham, the University’s Sport and Recreation Officer. ‘In my eyes, it gives us the right to claim that SCU is the number one Surfing Uni in Australia’.
`ƖōƷ ǩǮǽ ǩǧǩǩ The Byron Shire Echo 47