Sports Spurts With Short ‘n’ Curly - April 12, 2023

At a glittering NSW Cricket awards evening held last week at Doltone House in Sydney, local cricketer Matt Everett was awarded the Josh Hazelwood Medal for being the NSW Country Cricket’s Male Player of the Year.

Me and Me Mate very much doubt that such an award has ever been awarded to any player who plays in the Gilgandra and District Cricket Associations competition. This really is some achievement and caps off a sensational season for the modest Breelong player.

Apart from the award some other highlights for Matt in recent times include his selection in the western zone side that competed in the NSW Country Championships, where he wracked up a record 283 runs. He then went on to playing for the NSW Country Bush Blues in the Australian Country Championships where he was their leading run scorer. Apart from his batting skills Matt is also an extremely gifted wicket keeper. On the local level he was very much an integral member of the Gilgandra team that won the NSW Country Plate, being named as the player of the match in the final against Griffith, and he picked up a number of awards at the Gilgandra Cricket Association’s presentation afternoon.

Congratulations to him because his achievements have been absolutely outstanding, and his recognition thoroughly deserved.

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Me Mate is not all that impressed with the new sat nav that he has in his car. He reckons that the other day when he was driving around the Western Plains Zoo the sat nav said bear left and it was clearly a camel!

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Services Club Stop Press, 10-years-ago!

Lawn Bowls – Gilgandra High School’s lawn bowls team swept all before them as they stormed home to win the Warrumbungle Bowls Challenge and the $200 prizemoney attached to it. The team of Kade McKenzie, Dylan Marchant, Jasmin Kew and Max Hannelly did not drop a game throughout the tournament.

Racing – Spicy Angers won a Maiden at Warren in its first race. Trained by Bruce Parker, Spicy Angers started as a $41 outsider.

Lawn Bowls – Elaine Gilmour, Sue Armstrong, and Jean Bushell were the winners at the Women’s Bowling Club Trophy Day.

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A chicken walked up to a duck that was standing beside a road and said to him; “Don’t do it Mate, you will never hear the end of it!”

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Now who would have ever thought that a Gilgandra Speedway meeting could possibly ever get washed out? Well probably 100 per cent of the Gilgandra population, that’s who, because the cancellation of the planned big Good Friday speedway meeting at the Giladise track due to rain was far, far, far from being the first. Mud might be better than dust when it comes to things agricultural, but for speedway enthusiasts dust at least can be dampened down so that racing can get underway, while if you have mud then you have no racing.

With the track, the pit area and the surrounds somewhat impacted by the pluvial nature of things leading up to the planned meeting last Friday the Gilgandra club had no option but to unfortunately cancel (again). Sad but true, but the club will live on and race again in drier times.

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My Weakly Weekly Poetic Effort!

Me Mate went to a fancy restaurant, to impress his wife. It was not something that he did very often in his life. He called out to the waiter, “Can you please get me a beer?” “Ohh, and how do you serve prawns around here?” Replied the waiter, in a manner that could not be any finer. “Well in your case Sir, we will treat you like every other diner!”

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Now you might well think that that was the end of Me Mate’s little banter with the waiter, but he is claiming that he got one back when the waiter later asked him if he wanted any molasses. Me Mate says that he told him no thanks, he didn’t want any part of the mole at all! •••

As per usual it was a big, Easter long weekend over at the Gil Royal and Ancient with the highlight being on Good Friday, April 7 when the Martin Clift Memorial was played with 18 teams having a bash in it. The best bashers out of that sizeable field just happened to be the foursome consisting of Geoff and Allan Lummis with Mark and Aiden Hinchcliffe who were followed home by Font McEwen, Wendon Riley, Michael Roach and Graham Bugmy. But really overall golf was the winner over the weekend.

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Me Mate says that the other day some strange dude walked up to him and said that they were going to hit him with the neck of his guitar. While he was quite astounded Me Mate replied, “Is that a fret?!?” (talk to a musician if you don’t get it!)

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R = Really, A = Awesome, I = In, D= Defensively, E = Excellent, R = Resilient, S = Showing! Put them all together and what have you got? RAIDERS that’s what you’ve got! What a difference a week and a win makes. How good are they? Well, they were pretty good last Saturday night when they upset the Brizzy Bongos. While nether me nor Me Mate were overly confident about their prospects going into the game (especially given their terrible second half performance the previous week) we reckon that we were the only ones in the world to pick them in a tipping competition. Can they turn it on again next week? That is the big question and ohh Lordy we hope that they can because the Green Machine are up against the Drag Queens and life is pretty much unbearable when your team loses to the Draggies. Come on you Mighty Raiders! •••

Ok that’s about it for me this week so until we next get together have a good one. Hang on just before I go Me Mate wanted me to tell you that he doesn’t like grudges. He says his father kept grudges and he always hated him for it. Take it easy and GO YOU MIGHTY RAIDERS! (Can they do it or is winning two weeks in a row too much to ask for? Stay tuned to find out!)