Opening Day attracted a total of 33 players (11 teams) for the three person ambrose which was sponsored by Chris and Denyce Ryan together with Tim and Janine Tulenew. A great array of prizes and plenty of them with just about everyone taking home a prize which is a bit unique. The game was played in very blustery conditions.

The pick of the scores was a seven under par round by Simon Bartley, Brendan Smith and Tony Beetson. Six birdies plus an eagle on the 13th and a bogey on the second gave them a 53.67 nett. They set a very high standard not all that far away with 56.33nett was the family of Mathesons; between them they managed four birdies and nil bogeys. Deb and Nate overshadowed the old man.

A podium finish for John Wynne, Mick Beetson and Brend Harris with 57.83nett. Three under for the front nine and not so good on the way home. All up it was a hard day's golf compensated by the super prizes put on by our sponsors who we thank very much.

Saturday was the April medal, Tristan Dal Forno had probably had his best round ever in Nyngan with 71 off the stick and 61nett. He started terribly three over after three then parred the rest. Michael Gibson putting his first card in marched the winner with his 61nett. Tex went pretty well for 64 nett. Pins went to Tristan and a double to Barry Howell.

Veterans day was on Thursday, Will Brown from Cobar on 36 points was the overall winner, Bruce Mitchel from Narromine and Max Phillips from Cobar were the best of A-grade. Ken McNair from Warren and local Dave Buggy on 29 points were the B-grade winners. Dolly Ryan on 35 points and Deb Matheson on 34 points took out the ladies section. Welcome to our new committee headed by Tony Beetson farewell and thank you to the old one and goodbye and good luck and Mark and Sandra Beetson heading to Dubbo and Chris and Nicole Chambers heading to the North Queensland.

Golf over Easter is a par game on Saturday and a two person ambrose on Sunday. Deb Matheson's attempt at the $677 jackputt was a bit off line. Badge draw is for $900, the odds of winning are much better at the Golfie, perhaps you could participate at both venues this week?

WESTERN RAMS UNDER-16s

KURT Hancock has experienced plenty of highlights in his coaching career, but winning a Country Championships title with the under-16 Western Rams ranks near the top of his list.

The Bathurst mentor watched on from the sidelines at the Cessnock Sportsground on Saturday as his young Rams beat the East Coast Dolphins 32-22 in extra-time.

That the Rams had forced the additional time with a try in the dying seconds made it a result to relish even more. Hancock admitted he had prepared himself for defeat as the clock ticked down and Western was penalised for a forward pass.

The coach praised both his players and Western officials for their efforts throughout the tournament.

"It was good to see all the hard work, not only by the players, but the Western Division officials, all come together on the day. I got a great deal out of it, it has sort of rejuvenated me as a coach,” he said.

GROUP 11

NYNGAN TIGERS

The Tigers played their final trial before the season kicks off properly on April 30. The boys made the long trip to Forbes to take on last year's premiers. The girls got the day underway coming up against the well-drilled Forbes outfit. Our girls made a few too many errors with the ball which allowed the Magpies to run in a couple of soft tries. Despite the 20 to nil scoreline against us, it wasn't a real reflection of the game and take away our silly mistakes it could have quite easily been a different ball game.

The under 18s put their ordinary effort from last week behind them and turned in a gutsy performance to only being beaten on the bell 30 to 26. These boys only had the bare 13 players and were reduced to 12 on a couple of occasions because of injury, but they showed plenty of courage to hang in there and nearly came away with the win.

Our forwards were strong with Ray Simmons, Ned Dawson and Tom Waterhouse doing plenty in the middle, hooker Jak Jeffery was another standout, he gets better with each game and will continue to improve as the season goes. The halves pairing of Cooper Barrow and Harry Blake were also dominant. Coop troubled Forbes each time he ran and was rewarded with a nice try, well done boys.

The first grade trial was much the same as the under 18s with the Tigers right in the hunt until the closing stages when Forbes ran away with the game. With 15 minutes to go the scores were still nil-all but Forbes finished with a flurry to run out 16 to four. Troy Evans was a standout, as was Rob Gudgeon and Jacob Neill. Well done boys have a good Easter.

JUNIOR LEAGUE

UNDER-14 TIGERS

Nyngan Under-14s started this week’s game against South Dubbo with a different team to the one that started last week. This was due to players being unavailable and the addition of several other players.

Nyngan started off well with Rory Quarmby scoring a good try down the left hand sideline which was converted by Dean Fitzallan to let Nyngan lead 6-nil only after a couple of minutes. Nyngan’s big front-rowers Heath Gough and Shannon Bourke started working well through the middle against the big Souths side, but did not have the support runners they needed to put the defence in doubt of who was getting the ball. This is something that the coach and the team will have to work on improving.

Nyngan’s centre pairing of captain Roy Herbert and his brother Reg is starting to work well with Roy working especially hard in defence while making ground every time he ran. Nyngan played well in patches but ball control and lapses in defence let them down at crucial times. Big Bomber Healy is improving and getting involved more each game. This can be said Joey Kennedy and Digby Barrow who give a bit away in size but not effort. Cooper Hunt showed good signs that he will handle the 5/8 position and as did Bradley Stanford at half. Dean Fitzallan at fullback was strong in attack and defence in his first game for the year. Nyngan scored another late try through Rory Quarmby, but South Dubbo ran out comfortable winners in the end.         

UNDER-12 TIGERS

The under-12 Tigers this week toughed out another win, and although it wasn't a pretty win, it was a very gutsy performance as they hung onto a narrow lead in the dying stages to come away victors 10 points to 8 in a nail biter.

Early season form has the boys sitting at the top of the table after two wins from our first two games. But we are yet to be tested against the top teams in the competition. However, from what was on display on Saturday the boys showed they have a lot of heart, especially in defence, as they clung on desperately in the last three minutes of the game to narrowly defeat South Dubbo. 

In summary, every player on the field showed great courage in a bruising encounter. Jack Melchior had a huge game and pulled off two brilliant one on one tackles down his edge and he also went looking for work making a couple of good runs. He found open space at one point and brought the crowd to their feet but was just pulled down in a desperate tackle by the opposition.

Isaac Drady tackled himself to an absolute standstill as always. He powered through a mountain of work and topped the tackle count for the second week in a row. Tyson Deebank was also energetic in defence and made his coaches very proud as he got up off our line all day tackling his heart out right to the final whistle.

Cruz Cook was strong and showed a ton of guts in defence time and time again as he came up with several try saving tackles after the opposition had beat a couple of our defenders and looked like sneaking through.

Our Brewarrina boys, Fred , Keylan and Ty were again dominant. Ty broke the line on numerous occasions and was rewarded with a good try. These boys also tackled like little champions. Connor Burley put in a big performance tackling with aggression. He increased his tackle count and his runs from last week and looked dangerous every time he took on the line.

Once again our fullback and captain Will Black was instrumental having 12 runs and breaking the line on 7 of these occasions.