Bathurst captain Paul Bright has hit out at Duntryleague for its decision to pull out of the Central West District Golf Association pennants but says the competition will be able to overcome the loss.
The Duntryleague side withdrew from the competition so it could hold its own club championships in February instead of the June, after its request to move the pennants to fit in with its own schedule proved unpopular.
Bright will play his first round of pennants this weekend against Forbes after missing last week’s impressive win over Mudgee and he believes the event will overcome the loss of the Orange line-up, which won three straight titles between 2008 and 2010 before Bathurst upset them last year.
“Duntryleague have put themselves first for a long time now and they’ve got to realise that not everything revolves around them,” Bright said. “They wanted to move the pennants but the other clubs from around the region were against it, so they pulled out.
“Duntryleague do everything to suit themselves but the show goes on, we have six very good sides and it looks set to be a good competition.”
Bathurst got their title defence off to a perfect start last week when they beat Mudgee four ties to one, despite fielding a second-string team
They will be looking to build on that when they take on a competitive Forbes side in Dubbo tomorrow with Bright looking forward to getting back into the action.
He missed last week because he was playing in The Lakes Medal, but it wasn’t a very successful trip and he is eager to put that round behind him.
“I’m pretty keen to get back into the pennants. I was playing at The Lakes last Sunday, I’ve been playing a fair bit down in Sydney and I hadn’t missed a pennants game in five years so I decided I would head down there instead,” Bright said.
“I had an absolutely terrible round, it was the worst I have played in a long time. It’s not a course that really suits me.”
The captain believes that Bathurst’s opponents – Forbes – are among their biggest threats in the competition.
“Forbes have a good side,” he said. “Both the Betland boys are strong and they have another young fella who is pretty handy.
“Forbes and Wentworth are probably our biggest challenges. I think Wentworth are probably the dark horses because they have got a very good draw. They don’t have to play anyone on their home ground.
“Dubbo had to play Wentworth at Wentworth last week and then they play us here in the final round and that home ground advantage is a massive thing to have.
“We have to play Wellington in Wellington next week and that is going to be such a tough game.”
Despite the challenges in the six-team competition, Bright thinks his team have enough firepower to defend their title.
“We are a solid side,” he said. “We have a lot of depth and last week we probably played our bottom five and got a good win. This week we will be at close to full strength and Dubbo is a course that should suit us more than Forbes. The greens are quick in Dubbo whereas in Forbes they tend to be be slower.”
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