The Centralian advocate Tue 28 Feb 2012
Centralian Advocate; NewspaperNT
2012-02-28
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English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Alice Springs; Tennant Creek (N.T.) -- Newspapers; Alice Springs (N.T.) -- Newspapers.; Australia, Central -- Newspapers
Nationwide News Pty. Limited
Alice Springs
v. 66 no. 79
application/pdf
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
Nationwide News Pty. Limited
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00365
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/238406
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/632918
30 Centralian Advocate, Tuesday, February 28, 2012 P U B : C A D V D A T E : 2 8 -F E B -2 0 1 2 P A G E : 3 0 C O L O R : C M Y K GO ONLINE Statistics for the Month of February Average daily max temp: 35.1C Average daily min temp: 20.8C Record highest temp: 44.7C on 2/2/1998 Record lowest temp: 8.5C on 24/2/1949 Average monthly rainfall: 44.3mm Highest monthly rainfall: 241.6mm in 2000 Rainfall this month: 25.6mm Total rainfall last month: 26.8mm Total rainfall this year: 52.4mm Total rainfall last year: 386.4mm Record annual rainfall: 782.5 in 1974 Sunrise: 6.29am Sunset: 7.05pm Outlook issued by the Bureau of Meteorology for Tuesday: Cloud increasing, shower or storm, mainly afternoon. Light to moderate northwest winds. Forecast: Tue 28: 32 (23) Wed 29: 25 (22) Thu 01: 24 (20) Fri 02: 23 (19) WEATHER WATCH SPORT Drags roar in opener DRAG RACING THE 2012 Central Australian Drag Racing Association season started on Saturday night with 21 competitors battling it out in round one of the Kennards Hire Headlight series. The Aces and Eights car bracket had seven entries with Andrew A r m i s t e a d a n d Christine Jackson getting three wins each. They were to meet up in the final. Both racers had almost identical react i o n t i m e s , b u t Armistead went on to take the win, running an elapsed time of 9.75 seconds over the oneeighth mile. The WB Mobile Windscreens bracket saw some great racing with the best reaction time of the bracket going to Oscar Taylor with 0.07 seconds. These good reactions helped Taylor get to the finals against Lenny Cole, where Cole went on to take the win in 7.37 seconds. There were five bikes in the Central Detailers and Services bracket and, with three wins each, Cameron Miller and Heather Parkinson got through to the final round. Parkinson left the lights first and went on to run 10.18 seconds on a 9.60 second dial in. Miller chased her down but crossed the line under his predicted time, giving the win to Parkinson. T w o f i r s t - t i m e r a c e r s , T i m McNaughton and Warwick Auld, also took away prizes. Court countdown begins Steve Menzies Michelle Hall will need to look for a new team after Centralian Masters withdrew from the A-grade competition Picture: JUSTIN BRIERTY NETBALL WITH one month until the first centre pass, teams are getting prepared but not finalised for the McDonalds Alice Springs Netball Competition. There are likely to be six teams in the A-grade competition with Centralian Masters dropping down to the A-reserve. This leaves a number of experienced players, including 2011 Players Player Michelle Hall, without an A-grade side. These players have the option of moving to another club, and there has been considerable interest from teams in a couple, or stepping out in the reserves with the likes of Helen Brown and Steph Gaynor. Clubs have held formal and informal sign-on days and there are likely to be new faces gracing the courts this season but where they will play is still a little in the air. Clubs still have another week to finalise teams in grades and nominate them to the association. As usual there will be a number of players missing from 2011 for a variety of reasons. One of the biggest players missing from the association will be former NT captain Julie Branson. Her move to Katherine is one of the reasons Masters is dropping to the reserves. Reigning premier Memo Rovers Scopes run of seven consecutive grand finals could come to an end. The team will be without NT Link championship winning defender Tara Everett, while there are doubts about a couple of other players which could see the clubs depth tested especially as some of the younger players who have filled in in the past have moved on. But it will still have the competitions best defender in Carlie Martin, the brilliance of Aimee Rodda, reliability of Kelsey Rodda and the nous and drive of coach Leanne Southam to ensure it will be competitive. Rovers will be holding a trial for its 17-and-under and 15-and-under players from 5.30pm on Thursday. Federal Trusty Glass had their first grading night on Thursday and there were a number of new players and the return of 2010 Alice Springs representative Jo Sheridan among the grand finalists from 2011. Veteran defender Jess Bonanni will be missing at the start of the season due to work commitments but coach Deb Gray said this would give youngsters such as Carlie Ryan a chance to step up and make this season theirs. Seasons president Ra Schwalger said the club hoped to build on its promising first A-grade season but will probably have to do it without Tara Roach, while Codie Ford will be having a late start to the season, The club has held its signon day but is still recruiting. Positive signs for the club will be Ari Whakaruru returning from the start of the season, and juniors such as NT 19-and-under representative Jordan Manu-Preston stepping into A-grade from the 17s. The full-time return of Jess Johannson to the playing ranks will make Wests Gillen Club a force to contend with this year, while Kate Fisher has a year off playing. Coach Naomi Preece said youngsters like Jaiden Preece and Lukeda Turner would be stepping up from the 17s to be full-time squad members. Wests has had inquiries from a number of players new to town and held its sign-on day at the weekend. The big news at Neata Glass Giants is that the club will have an A-reserve side to support the A-grade this season. Coach David Yeaman said the club had not lost any A-grade players from 2011 and had picked up a few new recruits, while proven A-graders Stacey Mann and Nicole Moore will be out again after not being able to play last season. He said new players were always welcome. Sundowners Gapview president and life member Darrelle Windsor said the club is hoping to a return to more good on-court performances after struggling in recent years after a record six consecutive premierships from 2000 to 2005. She said: We have to r e b u i l d a g a i n , w i t h Sherkeira Abala, Stacy M u t u o t a , S t e p h a n i e Johansson and Michelle Flemming all out from last year. The club has a lot of juniors capable of coming up to A-grade and they will be the focus for the club. There are a few girls interested in playing up in A grade, so we will have a young side. We definitely have to have an A-grade side as that is what juniors strive for. Sherk gives fighting advice MIXED MARTIAL ARTS Warren Thomson Sean Sherk battles with Jack Killingbeck at the Progressive Fight Centre last Thursday Picture: JUSTIN BRIERTY UFC fighter Sean Sherk was in Alice Springs on Thursday to run a seminar at the Progressive Fight Centre. The former UFC Lightweight champion has 11 years experience of being involved in the UFC and was in Alice Springs as part of an Australia-wide seminar tour. Sherk said: I do seminars a lot in the States and now Im starting to branch out and do seminars in different countries. This is my first time in Australia. We started off in Sydney and then went to the Gold Coast and Cairns and then Alice Springs and Melbourne. I leave it to the gym to decide what they want to see, but I mix it up a little bit. I talked to the coach before the seminar and he wanted a little bit of everything. Progressive Fight Centre chief instructor Andrew Barram said: It was absolutely fantastic. He taught us several things and weve got some very experienced martial arts students at the gym, but he pulled out stuff that they had never seen before, so it was a great learning experience. It was incredible to train on the same floor as him and it fired up a couple of people and ignited some possible dreams. It was great to see the stars in the eyes of our younger participants and, from some of the comments made by them, it ignited some dreams and we may have some possible UFC fighters amongst us. Sherk is the first UFC fighter to run a seminar in the Northern Territory and it is possible that Sherk may one day return during another tour of Australia. Sherk said: Ill do as many as needed. Im having a great time so far, so Im happy to come back if people want me. Everyone seems to be having fun at the seminars so far. Ive done seminars all over the country and I see a lot of different skill sets ranging from people just starting to high-level guys. What Ive seen so far is pretty good. They are hungry, they know what they are doing and they are willing to learn. Sherk will return to fighting in the UFC this year.