Hunter teams dominated the NSW Touch Football Senior State Cup held in Port Macquarie on the weekend.
Hundreds of teams from all over the state, and some from overseas, descended on the Regional Sporting Complex and Tuffins Lane Fields where 888 games were contested over three days.
Newcastle’s Mixed Seniors and Men’s Masters prevailed in their grand finals, downing Beresfield 3 – 2 and UNSW 6 – 5 respectively.
The Maitland Redbacks were champions across four divisions, claiming narrow victories over Hills and Cronulla in the Men’s Under 20s and Men’s Master’s Plate deciders.
Maitland also beat out cross-town rivals Newcastle to top the Mixed Open B and Women’s Masters, the scores 5 – 1 on both occasions.
But Newcastle won the day, crowned both Country Club and overall State Champions, bringing home the Ron Andrews Cup.
An estimated 6000 people flocked to Port Macquarie for the tournament, including an international contingent with four visiting nationals using the event as a warm up for the 2024 World Cup set to be held in the UK.
England brought their Men’s Open, Women’s Open and Senior Women’s teams. Singapore had their Men’s and Women’s Open in attendance, while both Japan and the Philippines sent Mixed Open teams.
Dom Tripp England’s Men’s Open Captain said they were blessed to be in Australia to test themselves against some of the best players in the world.
“We recently played at the QLD State Cup and heading to the NSW event allows us to spend time together as a team,” Tripp said.
The team had been training only once a month amid a big freeze gripping the UK and Tripp said being able to play in a two week block while down under had been beneficial.
“We are here to be challenged and teams and coaches have been so generous with their sharing of information to help us grow and develop.”