BATHURST High have survived what was expected to be the tougher of their two days of competition in the Astley Cup to take a handy lead into day two of their tie against Dubbo Senior College.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The hosts set up a 50-point day one lead with a huge win in the tennis to open their 2014 campaign as they look to claim the coveted trophy for the third straight year.
They lost the next three matches in boys’ basketball, girls’ netball and boys’ rugby league, but stayed close enough to minimise the damage.
In the rugby league contest especially the damage could have been significant as Dubbo came out with a point to prove, but in the end a gutsy 24-20 defeat kept Bathurst where they needed to be.
“We felt building up to this that we were going to be stronger on the second day with the boys’ and girls’ soccer as well as the girls’ hockey,” Bathurst High sports co-ordinator Darren Hamilton said.
“The kids absolutely outdid themselves across all four sports. I couldn’t be happier with the efforts they put in and it sets us up nicely if things work out the way we are hoping tomorrow.”
The 15 sets to 1 win in the tennis gave Bathurst a 94-6 split of the Cup points to begin with, and as hard as Dubbo tried they could only make small inroads into the deficit as the day wore on.
They won a close basketball contest 39-33, before taking out the girls’ netball 49-38.
Both results translated to a 57-43 division of the Cup points.
With netball having been something of a weakness for Bathurst in the past few years, it was an encouraging performance to get as close as they did.
“We always thought that we could keep them fairly close in both those games. The coaches and players were maybe a little bit disappointed afterwards, but they didn’t need to be – they did a great job,” Hamilton said.
“In the rugby league we were a bit worried that if things went the wrong way we could be on the end of a fairly heavy loss. Dubbo have five players in the regional side.
“They really came out and bashed us for the first 15 minutes and I think our boys were pretty rattled for a while there before they started to gain a bit of composure.
“We were down three tries to one at half-time and again in the early part of the second half they really lifted the intensity, but we hit back well to get back to within four points and really claw back some ground.”
While they have had some success on the tennis courts in the past, Hamilton admitted that even he was shocked by the lopsided scoreline that has set his team’s charge up brilliantly.
“Never has that happened, certainly not against Dubbo anyway. That is a real first,” he said.
“The talk was that both teams would be quite evenly matched in the tennis, but it wasn’t the case, and the matches themselves weren’t close either in a lot of cases.
“There were a handful of close games, but there were a lot of 6-0 or 6-1 sets too.”
Day two will kick off this morning with the athletics at the Sportsground before the attention shifts to Proctor Park for the two soccer matches.
Hamilton is hoping that he can start to relax a little more by that stage and enjoy the hockey match at the Cooke Hockey Complex with the result already decided.
“I think the hockey girls will do very well but it would be nice to go into that game with no pressure on,” he said.
