The first Cobar Country Cup netball gala day may have got off to a soggy start on Saturday morning but it failed to dampen the spirits of players and spectators with all declaring it was a great day.
Nine teams from around the region lined up at the Ward Oval netball courts on Saturday morning hoping to win a share of the $4,500 in prizemoney on offer.
Heavy rain mid-morning (along with expected lightning) forced organisers to change venue and the competition was moved and completed at the indoor courts at the Cobar Youth & Community Centre.
After seven wins and just one loss, Cobar’s Once Were Blues side, which contained former Cobar Blues Netball representative players (many of whom had not played together since 2013 and 2014) had made it to the final where they took on the unbeaten Dubbo All Stars team headed up by a former Cobar junior netballer, Grace Power.
In their earlier encounter in the round robin, the fast, young All Stars team had finished with an easy 21 points win over Once Were Blues, however it was a very different game in the final when Once Were Blues decided to get serious.
Playing at Goal Defence, Amie Jacklin, came into the final with a much more assertive and tenacious attitude and her strong defensive play really shook up the previously confident Dubbo shooters.
At the other end of the court, Once Were Blues’ Goal Shooter, Lane Poland (who travelled from Taree for the competition) followed suit and dominated in the ring.
At half time, All Stars had a narrow 10-6 lead but both sides had lost a player each to injuries.
Each team re-shuffled their line-ups in the break and the game continued in the same frenetic vein throughout the second half.
The All Stars finished as 19-12 winners however the final score doesn’t truly reflect how close the match was.
(The fact that the All Stars asked who’d won at the end of the game, did show how close they thought the match was!)
All Stars were awarded the Cobar Country Cup and $2,000 prizemoney while Once Were Blues picked up medallions and $1,000 prizemoney as runners-up.
The Friendliest Team of the Day (as voted by the other teams) was the Northern Riverina Cheer Squad (which consisted of Hillston, Lake Cargelligo and Condobolin players) and they won $1,000 too. The Player with the most votes for Best & Fairest was Kasey Watler from the Bourke Blueys side who won $500.
The Cobar Country Cup was run in association with the Cobar Netball Association with sponsorship from Aurelia Metals/Peak Gold Mine, Tronic Group, Cobar Steel and Ellie Dunlevy Design.
