62 The Blue Mountains Gazette, Wednesday, 11 April, 2012 www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au

Rugby league

Lower MountainsSaturday, March 31 provided the club with a beautiful sunny

day at Warrimoo Oval and despite all the events occurringacross the Lower Mountains the crowds at Warrimoo werehuge.

Under 6s:The boys had a great trial game against Doonside,with Jett Jackson scoring two tries and Joshua Carn scoring onetry. Daine Patrick had a couple of great tackles and made onegreat run. George Walker, Kieran Thomson, Joshua Mitchel,Bradley Nias, Patrick Conaty, Lachlan Hildon, Billy Wright, RhysJones, Vinnie McLaren and Christopher Smythe also playedwell.

Under 7/1’s: Considering the disruption to training and trialscaused by the weather the boys played very well with stronginvolvement from everyone. Despite an early try against themthey came back with great enthusiasm and ran out easy win-ners. The attack was led by Patrick Moore with great supportfrom Oliver Wickerson, Jackson Bagatella and Riley Barglickwhilst the defence was ably led by Ben Leaney with great sup-port from Jack Babbage, Pat Bourke, Hayden Stevens, andMitch Crouch.This was a real team effort with great passing andcommitted defence. Well done, boys. Tries to P. Moore two, J.Bagatella and O.Wickerson.

All bar two Lower Mountains teams played this weekend andthere were some pleasing results — stay tuned for the next trialbefore the season starts and come and support your local club.

There is room for a couple more players so be sure to contactthe secretary on: 0407 132 602 and be a part of a great club, agreat sport and a great team.

Football

Devils drawWith the start of the local soccer premier league competition

delayed because of poor ground conditions, Blue Mountainsand Blaxland Redbacks played an additional trial game atKnapsack Stadium, a game which ironically was called off with20 minutes to go because of rain, but in classic local derby styleended in a fitting result of a 2-2 draw.

With the cool, calm and collected coach Dave Gordon urgingthem on from the sideline, the home team’s goals, as was thecase in the week before, came from the boots of Brad Collier andMark Semunic. Few at the ground would dispute that utilityAndrew Finlayson was close to man of the match honours, andup front Paul Martyn also gave the Devils plenty of value.

Athletics

Athletes at NSW OpenChampionships

Four Blue Mountains athletes competed at the NSW OpenChampionships at Homebush over the weekend. This is themajor track and field championships for the state and it is greatto see Blue Mountains representation at this level.

Tai Denicaucau competed in both the open women’s shot putand discus. She came third in the shot put with a throw of12.93m and 4th in the discus with a great throw of 47.78m.Bothof these events were won by Dani Samuels — previous discusworld champion — so Tai was competing in a tough field.

Emma Cormack performed well in the open women’s highjump with a jump of 1.60m and won bronze on a countback.

On the track, masters athlete, James Barnes, competed inthe open men’s 10,000m and ran a solid 42:59.0.

Maeve Goehner from the Glenbrook Little Athletics Centrewon her first individual State gold medal in the U9 Girls 800m atthe NSW Little Athletics State Track and Field Championshipsheld from March 23-25 at Sydney Olympic Park.

Maeve took gold in a thrilling finishing personal best time of2:41.56 mins.

Fellow U9s Mountains athletes, Mia Williams from EmuPlains Little Athletics and Lillian Patterson from SpringwoodLittle Athletics, also produced remarkable performances at thechampionships. Mia took bronze in the same event with a per-sonal best time of 2:45.82 mins and Lillian jumping her way tobronze with a personal best of 3.81m in the U9 girls long jump.

Great run: Maeve Goehner on her way to gold.

Maeve wins gold

Swimming

True to their name, Blue Mountains Phoenix Masters wereonce again on fire at the recent Masters Swimming NSW branchchampionships — and they enjoyed themselves as well.

The two-day event was held at Homebush Olympic ParkAquatic Centre.

Blue Mountains Phoenix swimmers competed in three relaysand won them all.

Kathy Dobson, Liz Wallis, Kay Burton and Nerida Murrayteamed up to set a new national record in the women’s 4 x 50mmedley relay in the 280-320 age group, before going on to winthe women’s 4 x 50m freestyle relay.

Ros Arnold and Lisa Manning then teamed up with Kathy andNerida to win the women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay in the 200-240 yrs age group.

Liz Wallis, the club’s remarkable 85-year-old, was namedswimmer of the meet for her amazing effort of setting five nation-al records in her age group, which of course netted her five indi-vidual gold medals.

Kathy Dobson also won five individual gold medals, setting anational 200m individual medley record for her age group as shewent.

Ros Arnold (two silver, one bronze), Nerida Murray (fivegold), Sue Wiles (four silver) and Kay Burton (three gold, two sil-ver) also competed on both days.

The club’s other two swimmers were only able to make it onone day each. Lisa Manning (two bronze) swam her first ever200m butterfly race. Jillian Pateman managed to fit one swim inon Sunday while quietly attending to a host of behind-the-scenes administrative tasks that kept the championships sailingalong.

While the club is very proud of these swimmers’ achieve-ments, Blue Mountains Phoenix is not all about competing incarnivals. Members train together regularly to enjoy swimming,improve their swimming, enjoy each other’s company and keepfit. It welcomes new members, male and female, all ages andabilities to join members during the winter at Springwood poolon Saturdays from 8am. Ring Paul or Kathy Dobson and have achat: 0410 635 864 or 1300 653 176.

Successful team: Kay Burton, Kathy Dobson, Lisa Manning,Nerida Murray, Sue Wiles, Ros Arnold, missing Jillian Pateman.

Swimmer of the Meet: Liz Wallis with Tony Tooher, vice-presi-dent of Masters NSW Swimming.

Phoenix ignites again

Successful team: Kay Burton, Kathy Dobson, Lisa Manning, Nerida Murray, Sue Wiles, Ros Arnold, missing Jillian Pateman.

Swimmer of the Meet: Liz Wallis with Tony Tooher,vice-president of Masters NSW Swimming.

Rugby

Premiers face challengeOne of the hardest challenges in any

sport is to win back to back premierships.Trying to reach the expectations, repro-ducing the form shown the previous sea-son, maintaining personal levels, andbeing able to ward off the extra effort thatdrives opposing teams to pull that littleextra out when they are facing the pre-miers.

These, amongst others, are some ofthe challenges that Blue MountainsRugby Union Club’s first grade side whenthey open the defence of their titleagainst Macquarie Uni Saturday at theuniversity.

While the grand final win last year wasa proud and emotional moment for theLapstone Oval faithful, it is now history,and it’s come down to a time where thefirst step needs to be taken to repeat theefforts of 2011.

Of course like all other football codesthe Blueys pre-season preparation hasbeen savaged by Mother Nature, andwhile the first grade’s form hasn’t beentop shelf in the trials, there are plenty ofpositive signs to point towards the strongchance of another very competitive yearunder the guidance of John Pinson andBen Bifield.

Without a doubt the loss of three of thefour best footballers from last year’s tri-umph is a bitter pill to swallow, but theclub has a knack of being able to recoverfrom such setbacks, and there are newrecruits, and known players alike readyto step up, and, of course, any footballside that can boast the calibre of playerssuch as Dave Twomey, James Richeyand Ellis Patrick, is always going to giveany opposition a game to remember.

While the first grade clash will be thehighlight, plenty of interest will also befocused on the long awaited debut of theunder 21 colts side in the 12 team 2012third division competition.

Lower Mountains Rugby League Club’s more senior playershave tough assignments this weekend as they wrap up their2012 pre season commitments against tough opponents.

The A Grade squad under the astute guidance of the marquecoaching duo of ex Panthers Peter Kelly and Brad Drew headout to the Windsor complex Sunday to play the Winsdor Wolves.

There is no doubt that they will go a long way towards a posi-tive display against the home team if the likes of the halves pair-ing of Luke Eisenhuth and Oscar Thorburn and of course KurtWilson play to the best of their ability.

Meanwhile on Saturday at Warrimoo from 2pm onwardsthere will be no place for the faint hearted on the paddock asDave Hart’s talented under 17s take on a very strong Lithgowunder 18s outfit, with the locals looking to the likes of new recruitNick Wilson and the talented Harry Kwok to lead the way.

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