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Enquiries:
Ross Giles
Club President
0407
662 446
rjgiles@virginbroadband.com.au
Website Enquiries:
Luke Tonkin
luke@cronullacaringbah.com.au
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Inverell
40th Anniversary Tour 2008
“When the weather is cool, don’t forget to refuel, on your way to
Inverell”. So sung Richie, the unofficial Tour Balladeer in the song he
wrote especially for the 40th Anniversary Tour, and not without good
reason!
Check out the NITV Barefoot Rugby League segment.
50 odd excited children and (not so excited) adults boarded the bus in our
carpark at 7.00am for the 10 hr trip to Inverell. Eleven and a half hours
later with our hosts waiting freezing, on the footy field, just one
tourist made it. El Presidente Graeme arrived, having hitched a ride in to
town in a Ute full of firewood, the bus having run out of diesel some 40km
short of it’s final destination. A convoy of cars was quickly organized to
ferry everyone the rest of the way to town. Despite calls of “Leave him on
the Bus!”, we even brought the Bus Driver. The billets were quickly
organized and departed for warm lounge rooms and country fires, whilst the
adults headed for the “Aussie” to warm up another way.
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Despite sightings of snow on the roadside on the way across the Range,
Saturday dawned quite mild and a great day for footy. It was decided that
the under 11’s would be split in 2, helping to make up an under 10 team
and an under 12 team, with each team to play 2 games. All the games were
played in a great spirit and the standard of footy was high. The local
under 10’s struggled a little against the bigger tourists but lacked
nothing in courage and our boys clicked surprisingly well for a thrown
together team. The local under 12 team contained a few real stars (one of
them already sparking interest from the Titans) and really entertained the
crowd. Although our boys were a bit underdone in game one, the addition of
one of the local “stars” to the touring team saw all the boys lift.
Suddenly all our players were 6” taller and 2m faster. That final game was
real showpiece of junior rugby league. Of course between games there were
more “unofficial” games and again afterwards, it never stopped!
The Saturday footy was covered by NITV as part of it’s “Barefoot Rugby
League” program and is due to be shown this Thursday at 6.00pm on Channel
180 (FOXTEL). Saturday night at their clubhouse, Inverell put on a great
feed and the boys entertained themselves playing…..footy. Later, the
adults retired to the Aussie to watch the Sharks game and ensure their
fluid levels were maintained. Richie, our Balladeer scratched out some
lyrics on the back of a coaster and next thing had a song for us to
commemorate the 40th Anniversary Tour – “Playing Footy in Inverell” (or
the ass song as the Boys liked to call it.). Sunday was a free day and
everyone did their own thing from horseriding to fishing to staying warm
in the Aussie.
Monday morning saw 50 odd tired but happy tourists trooping back on the
bus for what should have been a 10hr drive home. Unfortunately…..but
that’s another story.
In 1963, one of our players, Barry Spaulding left the Shire to move to
Inverell. A few years later he had the idea of inviting a Cronulla
Caringbah Team to the town as guests and the following year we returned
the favour. A tradition was born, and for the past 40 years, teams have
alternately traveled the New England Hwy to play footy and enjoy the
camaraderie of our game. Next year it is our turn to play host and we look
forward to welcoming Inverell to Cronulla in 2009. |
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