Hamish Pearce lifted the Tablelands Cup on behalf of his Wanderers team at the Wicklow Hotel on Saturday evening.

New England put two sides into this year’s cup with fairly even Nomads and Wanderers teams being drawn from the large numbers attending pre-season training, although some players had to play for both sides. These each took on the Nambucca Lions in half-matches before recombining for a 20-minute intra-club match. Both the Wanderers and the Nomads beat Nambucca, with the Wanderers awarded the cup due to the superior margin of their victory.

The scores of the games were:

The two home sides played skillful, committed football but the Lions, having played together far longer, were better organised.

Best and fairest for the day went to the Lions’ captain-coach, Sugar, but many of the locals put in good performances. A few notable mentions: Dave Richards showed his pace and talent and kicked some fine goals; Tom Walsh did a good job having shifted into the backline; Hamish Ross used his size and nous at full forward well; Hamish Pearce is getting even better, and Darby Pearce played his second Tablelands Cup for the club, this time as a club member. The arrival of ex-Roo Ash Cruikshank should take some pressure off the perennially excellent Weston Whitby too, so things are looking promising at Bellevue Oval as the season approaches.

So despite the disappointment of team withdrawals Ben Page’s efforts to keep the Tablelands Cup running were thoroughly vindicated; with a day of good football and fun, and some areas for coach Brendan Meehan to work on over the next few weeks.

Now where did I leave the words to the Wanderers song?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Match report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.