Jeff Hanson, Narrandera Argus

Covid strikes popular event for second year running

A sense of deja vu must have swept over the Narrandera Rodeo Club committee on Friday night, with organisers reluctantly deciding to cancel their 2022 rodeo.

With the event meant to be held on February 19th, the hard-working committee was expecting a bumper crowd for a big night of thrills and spills but for the second year in a row, the Covid-19 pandemic has reared its ugly head.

With the interest of their workers and the community at the heart of their decision, President Ronald ‘Blue’ Absolom said they simply couldn’t host the event.

“We have had to can it because of Covid, and the protocol and all of that stuff,” Absolom said.

“It was too much of a gamble, and we had no staff and it was just too hard to get done.

“We were worried about workers and the crowd; there was just no way around it.”

Narrandera Rodeo Club were considering hosting their event right up until Friday, and Absolom said the decision not to run a rodeo was tough to swallow.

“We had a quick meeting there on Friday night and we were pondering for the last week whether we would do it,” Absolom said.

“It was a hard decision, especially after missing out last year, and with all our sponsors coming back on board, we were hoping to have a big night.

“It was tough, and I was on a real downer. I was on a bit of a high with expectations, just with everything looking really good for us, but it was very, very disappointing to call it off.”

With the Narrandera Rodeo cancelled for a second consecutive year, it is the community that misses out, and Absolom hopes to host some events in 2022 before shifting focus to the 2023 Narrandera Rodeo.

“In 2020, we gave away $12000 to charities, and our crowds have been exceeding records, and we were on a bit of a roll over the last four years,” Absolom said.

“We lost last year’s rodeo, then in the middle of last year, we were meant to have a team roping weekend, but with Covid, we had to cancel that too.

“We are talking about running a team roping event again this year, but we will see what happens with everything.

“The pony club still uses the facilities and there will still be events on but as far as a rodeo, we will look to next year.”

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 3 February 2022.