PIRATES lead the Central North competition on 75 points followed by Moree on 72, with Walcha and Narrabri on 65. Pirates play Barrabi Gwydir this Saturday while Moree and Narrabri take on each other at Moree.

WITH one round remaining, Pirates have scored 784 points while conceding 268 for a differential of 516. Moree have 655 for 394 against (261), Walcha 764 for and 333 against (431), while Narrabri have 600 for and 338 against (262). That means Narrabri would have to score over 150 points against Moree and not concede any if they were going to bridge the differential gap with the Rams.

TWO of the greats of Walcha rugby, Andrew Laurie and Peter Fenwicke have been nominated to have “The Park” or Walcha Oval renamed after them. Peter captained the Wallabies, while “Addles” was also a Wallaby player. Voting for the renaming of “The Park” closes at the council office next Tuesday, August 21.

BEST of luck to the Walcha Jillaroos when they play minor premiers Uralla in the Group 19 second division ladies league tag major semi-final at Woodville Oval this Saturday. For the information of the supporters who intend attending, all the action kicks off at the earlier time of 12 noon.

SO far this season, Uralla have won two games against Walcha while the Jillaroos lowered the colours of their arch-rivals last outing. Co-captain Robyn Broadbent reports the girls have been training well and is confident of a good team performance on Saturday. 

VICTORY means an instant entry to the 2018 grand final which will be played at either Uralla or Guyra depending on who wins the main game between those two clubs. The two teams met a fortnight ago at Uralla where the Super Spuds belted the Tigers 36-10.

GOING on the performance when Guyra rounded up the Roos easily at Guyra in Walcha’s final game of the season, plenty of reasonable judges reckoned the Super Spuds could go all the way and win the Group 19 second division competition. That picture will become slightly clearer this Saturday.

LATE last month, local horse rider Bonnie Smith competed in the annual Paradise Lagoons Campdraft near Rockhampton where she was selected in a NSW state of origin team to take on Queensland. After receiving her uniform, Bonnie had photos taken, but then unbelievably was asked for the gear back as she and one of her teammates had been replaced.

NO prizes for guessing that Bonnie wasn’t a happy little camper about the whole situation, but what made it even worse was that apparently the two NSW riders had been replaced by two Victorian riders.

A REMINDER that the Workplace Golf Challenge is on August 26. It is a three-person ambrose event sponsored by Tooheys in conjunction with the New England Hotel. Grab a couple of workmates – which isn’t compulsory – for a fun day.

FORMER Manly Sea Eagles captain and Kangaroo Jamie Lyon was in town last Sunday to promote a range of sportswear and was good enough to have a yarn with a few of us locals at the Newie. 

WALCHA travelled to Scone with two grades on the weekend in the final round game for the year, with the Rams scheduled for a bye next weekend.

Scone took a 26-0 lead into half-time. The Rams managed two tries in the second half but it wasn’t enough, the final score being 26-10.

The reggies had a season of more losses than wins, but they certainly played the game in the right spirit and on a number of occasions lost games that could easily have gone the other way.

Pleasingly, T-Roy confirmed that Cameron Norbury had fully recovered from his itchy elbow and put together a 7 out of 10 performance which was a huge result for the boys.

Will Fletcher won the toss and elected to run with the wind. The Rams scored 43 points to 5 in the first half. Tries to Dom Bower, Dicko Young, Mike Whitton, Henry King, Will Fletcher and a double to Pat Keen saw Walcha open up a handy lead.

Harry Locke was at his versatile best, setting up a couple of tries, while the forwards were doing their thing, pushing a scrum all the way over the line from 5 out for Will Fletcher’s first try. Dave Healey landed his first pass of the year, sending Pat Keen 75 metres to score and end the first half.

Walcha continued to turn the screws in the second half with the forwards pushing another scum over for Will Fletcher’s double. Pat Keen and Dom Bower both scored nice individual tries and Angus Mactavish scored his first for the year. 

The final score was 67-17 with Henry King getting 1 point, Simon Newton 2 and Sandy Cameron 3 points and players’ player.

Things are about to heat up when we host Narrabri in the minor semi-final on August 25. It would be fantastic to see as much support as possible.