Prior to 2015, Bathurst had never fielded a side in the under 21s age division, let alone a team in the championship division.

But over the three days of competition which saw them face an arduous schedule of 21 games, Bathurst proved more than competitive.

Heading into their final game on the last day against host association Illawarra, Bathurst knew a win would be enough to hand them third place. However, a ruling by Netball NSW to make that match worth double points was to prove telling.

“What happened was that there was a mix-up with the draw on the website, the dates were wrong and it said August 1. Most teams went back in and checked again later and realised when they had to play, but Illawarra failed to turn up for their last game of the first day against Bathurst," Bathurst representative co-ordinator Tina Muller explained.

“So that automatically should have been a forfeit and two points to Bathurst.”

However, as another outfit had made the same error as Illawarra and the initial incorrect draw was published by Netball NSW, the result did not stand as a forfeit. 

Instead the ruling was not to award any points for the first meeting between the pair and instead have the final game between them worth four points.

“On the second day Bathurst beat Illawarra 13-10, then on the last day when they two sides played it was basically to decide third and fourth,” Muller said.

“The Bathurst side was up halfway through the second half, but they ended up losing by three. That gave Illawarra four points.

“It was disappointing how it worked out, but to get fourth was just an unreal effort. Bathurst has never played in the championship division before.

“They drew with Newcastle, who ended up coming second, and lost by four to Charlestown who won the competition. They are very keen for next year.”

Bathurst’s under 17s were also in action at Illawarra, competing in division two.

While they had posted top 10 finishes the previous two years, injuries hampered Bathurst’s campaign this time around.

One player was injured at training, another in a car crash, while the heavy schedule meant many of  those who did make the trip to Illawarra picked up niggles as well.

They ended up placing 16th out of 22 teams, but Muller said they still notched up some good wins and were competitive in defeat.

“There were only three healthy players by the end of the last day, they had a lot of injuries, but I know their coach Melissa Noonan was really proud that they kept playing on,” she said.

“In the end they had defenders as shooters. But the girls played really hard and in many of their games they only lost by a couple of points.

“They had some good wins – they beat Dubbo [22-20] who ended up placing fourth and they were up against Orange, who ended up placing seventh, before going down by three points [19-16].”