Sport

Jeff Hanson. The word prodigious can get thrown around a lot these days, but it’s really the only way to describe 21-year-old athlete and rugby league star, Tristan Eldridge ... After choosing rugby league as his sport of choice, the talented outside back was nurtured in the Canberra Raiders system, playing Harold Matthews Cup, SG Ball Cup and Jersey Flegg Cup for the Green Machine.

The children of the Allora Swimming Club were delighted to return to their home pool in November to commence their new season of swimming ... Allora Swim Team members have already competed in the Winter Short Course Championships, Fairholme Time and Technique Meet, Turbo Jets Spring Carnival, Toowoomba Open and a weekend out West for the Chinchilla and Dalby Open meets.

Rodney Stevens. When you hit the Clarence Valley beaches this summer you can rest assured you are being watched by the best, after Recce Dobbin was awarded DHL Lifeguard of the Year at the Surf Life Saving Australia National Awards of Excellence ... Having saved the lives of more than 20 people during his life-saving career, Mr Dobbin said this wasn’t the first award he had received.

At just 29 years of age, Tom McDermott won his third senior Australian Showjumping title at Boneo Park last weekend ... Showjumping has been Tom’s life. He won his first junior showjumping title at age 12 and looks sure to follow the path of his father, Greg, who represented Australia at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1990.

Imagine being a talented, horse-loving teen stuck in the middle of a war. Instead of dreaming about representing your country at the Olympic Games, you are helping your family set your horses free in the hope they will survive the bombing. The one thing about horse lovers worldwide is they stick together ...

...Several years ago local identity Greg Jordan (AKA Wheelie) competed and won the team World 8 Ball Championship in England ... This week Wheelie was notified he will be inducted into the World 8 Ball Hall of Fame ... Once the initial excitement wore off and reality set in, he realised that getting there was just not going to be financially possible.

Pam Dillon. Twenty-eight students from three different remote schools spent three days fine-tuning their swimming skills to improve their schools’ chances in the Barkly Region Inter-school Swimming Carnival. With the help from Swimming NT, Royal Lifesaving NT (RLSNT) and the Barkly Sport Education Coordinator, the students ranging from preschool through to Year 8 were put into groups according to their swimming ability.

A North Queensland football coach and first aid officer who has spent his life working with troubled youth has put his hand up to assist in rehabilitation of criminal offenders through a trial of Katter’s Australian Party’s Relocation Sentencing policy. Relocation Sentencing, which has long been touted by the North Queensland-based party as “circuit-breaker solution” to the unrelenting youth crime crisis, would involve repeat offenders being sent to remote properties to work the land while completing compulsory therapeutic programs over a 6-12 month period.

Last Friday, Tennis Victoria, Buldau Yioohgen (Anglicare’s Indigenous Youth Leadership Academy) and the Bendigo and District Aboriginal Community hosted Culture on Court in Castlemaine - an event that mixed culture with tennis plus plenty of fun in a culturally safe environment. Participants improved their tennis skills and experienced cultural activities.

Patricia Gill. Denmark's first St Ayles Skiff headed through the channel at the Rivermouth on Saturday marking the end of the 10-month community project to build the boat. Organiser David Cliff reflected on the project, quoting Ratty telling Mole in Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s novel, Wind in the Willows: “Believe me my young friend there is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much fun as simply messing about in boats”.

Like a scene from yesteryear, a number of timber-built boats recently descended on Lake Talbot. The Classic Australian Wooden Powerboat Association members are fond of Narrandera and have had their “annual gathering” at Lake Talbot since 2002.

Ricky Ludwig will now weigh up whether to send Lord of Light to Brisbane for a $200,000 race after the Tolga trainer added another Cup to his record at Cooktown. Given a “10 out of 10” ride by jockey Frank Edwards, the even money favourite was an easy winner of the 1760m feature event on Saturday, even if the margin was only a quarter of a length.

The Tasmanian horse community has been given a one-month reprieve after being cut off from the mainland following a decision by the operators of the only sea link to the island state, the Spirit of Tasmania, to ban livestock transport ... The decision by TT-Line to ban livestock on the Spirit of Tasmania threw the horse community into chaos and led to some horses missing racing in Melbourne on Cup Day.

When Karen Parrish decided to run an online youngstock show, judged on photos by the noted British judge Gill Wright, the show got entries not only from each Australian state, but from Germany, the US, France, UK and New Zealand. Almost every Mountain and Moorland breed was represented in pure and part-breds, up to three years of age.

The deluge of rain over recent weeks has stalled the start of the swimming season at Lake Talbot Water Park. The complex opened for the summer season on October 1 but the wet weather has deterred swimmers on many days ... “We’ve been closed more days than we’ve been open,” said pool manager, Troy Lee.

Kendall Jennings. With four group one race wins under his belt, former Myall lad, Jye McNeil, has been granted his international jockey licence. The 27-year-old heads to the Hong Kong Jockey Club for a six-week adventure, including the Longines Hong Kong International on December 11, with the possibility of the tenure increased.

Australia's own breed was out in force at the Moss Vale Australian Stock Horse Branch show at the Sugarloaf Equestrian Centre at Cobbitty, NSW. Organiser Jackie Long said the venue cannot be matched. “It is the best place to hold a show,” she said.

Mounted games riders have the late Prince Phillip to thank for the origins of their sport. When Sir Mike Ansell was director of the Horse of the Year Show, the Queen’s husband asked if he could devise a competition for children who could not afford an expensive pony.

RVOTDS. Game Management Authority (GMA) (Vic) arranged a first-ever count of Stubble Quails in Victoria early this year, and the resultant report it assisted in drafting, has recently been published. The report’s authors have admitted only 101 birds were counted, yet the figure was extrapolated via complex methodologies up to an extraordinary estimate of 3.1 million.

Helen Whiteman. After sailing was cancelled the previous weekend for safety reasons, last weekend the weather proved to be excellent for the running of the annual ‘Up the Weir - Jack Ginnivan Trophy’ race in honour of  Jack Ginnivan, who was one of the founding members of the Club. 

Murdoch University sustainability lecturer Nicole Hodgson describes the central core of Mt Hallowell reserve as precious unlogged, long unburnt forest. This was mostly karri, jarrah, marri, sheoak, and more than 100 other plant species. Home to many animals and more than 70 bird species, some in the reserve were critically endangered like the Carnaby’s and Baudain’s cockatoos.

Cambooya para athletes Kyrna and Tomas Crump have come home from the Queensland school athletics championships in Brisbane with bags full of medals ... Without putting too much pressure on the pair, the next Paralympics, in Paris, are less than two years away.