Early goals to former dual premiership winning captain Adam Harradine and new doyen Lachlan McLennan paved the way as Minor Premiers Waves Cities held on to beat a never-say-die All Blacks 3-2 to complete a hat-trick of titles of Bundaberg Hockey Division 1 Men’s titles at Hinkler Park on Saturday.
The Blues established a 2-0 lead in the sixth minute and extended their advantage to three in the third quarter and always looked in control until All Blacks, playing in their seventh straight Men’s finale, set up a tense finish with their first goal seven minutes into the last term, then struck again less than two minutes later.
All Blacks narrowly missed the chance to level the scores in the dying seconds, with Cities holding on, but All Blacks' Nathan McGill received some consolation when he took out the Player of the Final.
Lachlan McLennan however picked up the D1 Men’s Player of the Year for the second year in a row, while All Blacks captain Dale Veivers was the Open Men’s Representative Player of the Year.
In the Women's, Raiders/Rovers also held on to defeat reigning champions and minor premiers Arrows/Athletics 2-1 and complete the Premier League-Bundaberg double, with their dual goal scorer, Queensland Over-35's representative Minka Elliott, the Player of the Final after also claiming that award in their Premier triumph in June, and she also took home the Masters Women’s Team 1 Representative Player of the Year.
Team-mate Christine Grant was the Division 1 Women Player of the Year.
Waves Cities also took out the Division 2 Women's crown, defeating Raiders/Rovers 3-2 in a penalty shoot-out after scores remained dead-lock at 2-all after extra-time, with one of their young guns, Gabrielle Aitkenhead, the Player of the Final.
All Blacks claimed Division 2 Men's honours at the expense of Raiders/Rovers 2-1, but Raiders/Rovers’ Riley Howard bagged the Player of the Final, D2 Men’s Player of the Year, and Under-18 Men’s Representative Player of the Year.
Raiders/Rovers also clinched the Under-11-13 double, whitewashing All Blacks 9-0 with a five-goal haul to Levi Kendall, and downing Cities 3-0 respectively.
Arrows/Athletics secured the Under-16 Silverware against All Blacks 6-0 with a hat-trick of goals to Tully Dorgan.
U11s
Raiders Rovers 9 (Ellena Crow 1, Will Baldry 1, Flynn Bock 1, Beau Kendall 1, Levi Kendall 5) d All Blacks 0. Player of the Final: Will Baldry (Raiders Rovers).
U13s
Raiders Rovers 3 (Molly Crow 1, Silvana Powell 1, Courtney Kendall 1) d Waves Cities 1 (Sophie Aitkenhead 1). Player of the Final: Stella Dwyer (Raiders Rovers).
U16s
Arrows Athletics 6 (Ava McCaig 1, Bridie Stehbens 2, Tully Dorgan 3) d All Blacks 0. Player of the Final: Tully Dorgan (Arrows Athletics)
Division 2 Women
Waves Cities 5 (Kylie Consen 1, Jaslyn Phillips 1 in game play) Penalty Shoot Outs: Karen McGuire 1, Clara Cislowski 1, Gabrielle Aitkenhead 1) d Raiders Rovers 4 (Lani Drinnen 1, Chantal Baldry 1) Penalty Shoot Outs: Alana McManus 1, Lani Drinnen 1). Player of the Final: Gabrielle Aitkenhead (Waves Cities)
Division 2 Men
All Blacks 2 (Tristan Storm 1, Tim Wales 1) d Raiders Rovers 1 (Kevin Knight 1). Player of the Final: Riley Howard (Raiders Rovers)
Division 1 Women
Raiders Rovers 2 (Minka Elliott 2) d Arrows Athletics 1 (Anna Vicenzotti 1). Player of the Final: Minka Elliott (Raiders Rovers)
Division 1 Men
Waves Cities 3 (Adam Harradine 1, Lachlan McLennan 1, Matthew Quaite 1) d All Blacks 2 (Nathan McGill 1, Isaac Wales 1). Player of the Final: Nathan McGill (All Blacks)
Perpetual Trophies
Division 2 Women Player of the Year – Angela Asnicar (Waves Cities)
Division 2 Men Player of the Year – Riley Howard (Raiders Rovers)
Division 1 Women Player of the Year – Christine Grant (Raiders Rovers)
Division 1 Men Player of the Year – Lachlan McLennan (Waves Cities)
BHA Junior Club Person of the Year – Aaron Chanoff (All Blacks)
BHA Senior Club Person of the Year – Amanda Wightman and Abby Heffernan – (both from Raiders Rovers)
Jenny Hartley Award for Division 1 Most Improved Female Player– Bridget Stehbens (Arrows Athletics)
Cislowski Chase Award for Division 1 Most Improved Male Player – Sam Kenny (Arrows Athletics)
Rep Player of the Year Awards
U13 Girls – Sophie Aitkenhead
U18 Men – Riley Howard
U18 Women – Emilie Petts
Masters Women Team 1 – Minka Elliott
Masters Women Team 2 – Cathy Weller
Open Women – Amanda Vicenzotti
Open Men – Dale Veivers
Netball
Brooke Land was Player of the Final as Waves Gold notched their fourth straight Bundaberg Netball Division 1 Premiership and completed an unbeaten season with a 55-37 Grand Final victory over a brave Natives Magpies at the Superpark on Saturday night.
But Magpies young gun Sophie Moore took out both the Division 1 Player of Season and 18 years Rep Player of the Year.
Karen Holloway was also a thoroughly deserved winner of the Service to Netball award, while Life Membership was also bestowed on current Vice-President Sharyn Batt for over 20 years of distinguished service to Bundaberg Netball.
Congratulations also to all the other Grand Final champions, including one who were also undefeated in 2023 regular season, Fusion Wessel Petroleum (D3), Waves Red (D2), Alloway Green (Masters), Brothers Tornadoes (D4), Alloway Yellow (D5), Waves Emeralds (Ladies), Fusion Precision (D6), Alloway Orange (D7), Brothers Blizzards (D8), Fusion Fireflies (D9), and Waves Violet (D10).
Football
An epic battle is expected in the McDonald’s Football Queensland Premier League Wide Bay Men’s Grand Final at Martens Oval at 7.30pm tomorrow between League Champions Across The Waves and United Park Eagles (UPE).
Waves have lost just two games for the year, and they finished with 52 points, eight more than third placed UPE, but there has been nothing between the pair all season, with Waves getting home 4-3 in their first meeting on 15th April, and the heavyweights drawing 1-1 when they last crossed swords on 3rd June.
But the biggest difference between the duo is Goals For with Waves racking up a mammoth 101 to UPE’ 59, while the Blue and Golds have conceded just 26 to the Eagles’ 31.
Waves blitzed Bingera 5-1 in the Qualifying Final, while UPE eliminated Fraser Flames 3-1, before also outgunning Bingera 3-0 in the Preliminary Final.
Waves young gun Preston Cox took out the Golden Boot with 34 goals, but inspirational UPE captain Josh Adcock finished in third position with an also excellent haul of 29.
Waves whitewashed Bingera 7-0 in last year’s decider, but this time, the result is expected to go right down to the wire.
The FQPLWB Women’s finale will be an all-Fraser Coast affair tonight between the unbeaten Flames and KSS Jets, who knocked out UPE 4-1 last Friday.
Waves will contest three of the other four FQPLWB Grand Finals at Martens Oval tomorrow, taking on Fraser Flames in U13 at 11am, Bayside Warriors in U16 at 12 noon, and Bingera in U23 Men at 5pm, with the WB North Division 1 Men’s play-off between United Warriors and Granville at 2.30pm.
Waves already have the Wide Bay North Division 2 Men’s Trophy in the cabinet after their epic 4-3 grand final victory over UPE Green last Friday night with doubles to Johnson Tekbiyik and Tino Giovannoni, despite UPE’s Nick Maas three-peat of goals.
SC Corinthians downed Diggers 2-0 in the WBN Division 1 Women’s decider, while Bingera snared the U16 D1A- U-13 D1A double, outgunning UPE 4-2 with a three-goal haul to Cameron Manski, and SC Corinthians Gladiators 3-0 with Beau Donnison, whose father Andrew and grandfather, the late Bill Donnison, are both club legends, leading the charge with a double in the latter.
McDONALDS FQ PREMIER LEAGUE WIDE BAY
MEN
Preliminary final: UPE 3 (Josh Adcock 3) d BINGERA 0
WOMEN
Preliminary final: KSS JETS 4 (Elaina Riebe, Hayley Tonkin, Jessica McGrath) d UPE 1 (Emily Ryan)
UNDER-23 MEN
Preliminary final: ATW 2 (Dylan Shackley, Heath Hunter) d FRASER FLAMES 0
UNDER-16
Preliminary final: ATW 3 (Riley Dexter, Xavier Ulbl, Benjamin Hick) d UPE 1 (Ismael Chumo)
UNDER-13
Preliminary final: ATW 2 (Kynan Manskie, Cruz Marschke) d KSS JETS 0
WIDE BAY NORTH
DIVISION 1 WOMEN
Grand final: SC CORINTHIANS 2 (Lily McCormack, Brooke Harrington) d DIGGERS 0
DIVISION 2 MEN
Grand final: ATW 4 (Johnson Tekbiyik 2, Tino Giovannoni 2) d UPE GREEN 3 (Nick Maas 3)
UNDER-16 DIVISION 1A
Grand final: BINGERA 4 (Cameron Manski 3, Ethan McKeown) d UPE 2 (Alex Galati, Kobe Evans).
UNDER-13 DIVISION 1 A
Grand final:
BINGERA 3 (Beau Donnison 2, Cale Stayte) d SC CORINTHIANS GLADIATORS 0
WIDE BAY & FRASER COAST
DIVISION 1 MEN
Preliminary Final: GRANVILLE 1 (Jason Rufus) d BROTHERS-ASTON VILLA 0
Cricket
Brothers will start their Bundaberg Cricket Rum City Foods Division 1 Premiership title defence with a Grand Final rematch with arch-rivals Waves at Salter Oval tomorrow at 11am.
They have named just six members of their grand final side with the biggest loss being the return of Player of the Grand Final Arden Lankowski to East Bundy Magpies, with young guns Lachlan Heycox and Toby Lamond also both unavailable, but Tallon Medal winner Mitchell Parsons will again captain a side which has just one Division 1 debutant, left-arm paceman Harry Johnson.
Waves have named a very similar side to the one which won the minor premiership but fell at the final hurdle, with spinning all-round Chris Duff a notable absentee.
The Magpies, who placed third before dropping out when the semi-final was abandoned due to rain, have been bolstered by the signing of Jack Munro from Waves Division 2, while under-16 all-rounder Charlie Steele will make his Division 1 debut along-side his club legend father Dale.
Norths, who fell from champions to wooden spooners in one year, have been bolstered by the return of veteran former Country/Wests gun batsmen Scott Irwin, who has been starring in the Aussie Bundy Home Loans Big Bash since its inception four years ago and was the leading run scorer in that competition in 2021, and dynamic all-rounder Patrick Power, who returns after a few seasons out of the game.
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