Hurley takes first Aussie title and then another

In the Australian Short Course swimming championships currently being held in Melbourne, Illawarra’s Robert Hurley captured his first Australian title in the 100 metre backstroke on Sunday night. In a time of 51.24 secs he was over 1.5 secs faster than Daniel Arnamnart and Hayden Stoeckel who won a backstroke bronze at the Beijing Olympics.

Photo: Hurley shows his backstroke start at last year’s world short course championships

On Monday night Hurley showed his versatility by taking out the 400m freestyle title in 3.42.50 over two seconds faster than second placed Ryan Napoleon and visiting Great Britain swimmer C Alderton who was third. On the same night Hurley was the fastest qualifier for the final of the 50m backstroke event ahead of Hayden Stoeckel.

On the opening night (Saturday) of the meet Hurley came third in the 200 metre freestyle event but was only 0.17 secs behind the winner Kyl Richardson.

Hawks down Spirit

The Sydney Spirit has slumped to a disappointing 111-99 loss to the Wollongong Hawks, on Saturday night at the WIN Stadium in Wollongong. The Hawks benefitted from the Spirit’s poor shooting.

The Spirit managed to pull down a staggering thirty-one offensive rebounds (compared to the Hawks relatively modest total of thirteen) and also launched an additional twenty-nine shots at basket, yet still found themselves trailing at every break in play.

The game statistics also show other damning evidence of the Spirit's woes, with the visitors shooting poorly from every spot on the floor. Field goal shooting percentage was miserly (40.2%) but even this appalling percentage positively glows when compared against the three-pointing shooting (19%) and free throws (54.8%).

The  Hawks had looked very vulnerable, on paper, in the absence of key player Cameron Tragardh but Matt Campbell, Dusty Rychart, Kavossy Franklin and Glen Saville covered the potential gap.

Wollongong Hawks 111 (Matt Campbell 20 points, Dusty Rychart 16, Kavossy Franklin 15, Glen Saville 15) defeated Sydney Spirit 99 (Derrick Low 22 points; Matt Knight 17 points, 10 boards; Julian Khazzouh 15 points, 14 boards; Liam Rush 15 points) @ WIN Entertainment Centre, 20/9/2008. Crowd: 2,834

Cardinals celebrate 60th in style

Wests Cardinals celebrated their sixtieth anniversary year in the strongest way possible by taking out their 26th Illawarra Baseball first grade premiership with a resounding 16-3 win over defending premiers Berkeley Eagles on Saturday.

Cardinals took the 2008 title by virtue of a 4-1 win in game one of the best of three games series last Saturday and backing up with this week’s win. It was the Red Birds third win over Eagles in the past five deciders and the greatest losing margin by Eagles in 22 consecutive IBL Grand Final Series games played in the last nine years.

In this week's game Cardinals were relentless in their onslaught, blowing a commanding 7-1 lead out to 16-1 in the seventh inning where nine runs were scored.  Eagles replied with two runs in the bottom of the seventh but this was still not enough to stop the ten run rule being invoked.

Earlier, Cardinals got away in first inning where a two out double by Trent D’Antonio sparked RBI hits by Josh Dean and Lee Vlasoff. D’ Antonio was in the mix again in the next inning where his two out, two run homer ignited a four run inning

Pitcher Blake Handley continued the solid performances by Cardinals pitching seven innings and allowing three earned runs on five hits. Handley did not allow one Eagles baserunner until the fourth innings where Chad Blanch’s hit was turned into Eagles first run on Stuart Thompson’s two out single.

Offensively Cardinals outhit the opposition 16-5 and in this department were well served by catcher D'Antonio who batted 4 from 5. Third baseman Dean continued where he left off last week gaining three more hits (3 / 5) one of which was a towering three run homer in the seventh and first baseman Lee Vlasoff batted 3 from 3 with 2 RBI's. (Frank Booth – media officer)

Join Bulli Surf Life Saving Club? 

Bulli Surf Life Saving Club is holding Registration Days (for both Juniors/Seniors) this Saturday 27 September & Sunday 28 September at the surf club 9am to 12 midday. The juniors will also conduct qualifying swims and registration at Corrimal Pool on Saturday 11 October from 9am to 12midday.

Club President Keith Caldwell says, "The club is gearing up for a big season in 2008/2009. Last season was massive in our 95th year. It's a great club to be involved in whether you are serious about surf sports competition, wish to be a patrolling member serving the community on a volunteer basis or joining as an associate member. You will enjoy the experience. We have a few new members joining us this year that will only strengthen our surf sports side of the club & the club is hoping for some great results at the major championships this season."  

Bulli had a 'stellar' season last year winning the Illawarra Branch Championships, members winning NSW, Australian & World Championship medals. Club members also gained selection in Illawarra, NSW & Australian representative teams. Any further enquiries please check out www.bullisurfclub.com.au

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