A few showers of rain could not dampen the spirits of the Forbes Croquet Club members as they celebrated World Croquet Day last Saturday.

A sausage sizzle and beautiful nibbles added to the festivities, as well as a cake made by Kath Swansbra from Parkes.

Records are made to be broken and Forbes Croquet Club is no exception. This is exactly what happened last Tuesday when 36 people took to the courts. We welcomed Port Stephens members Jim and Susan Timbs, as well as local Janene Whitfield. Janene said she enjoyed playing and would come again when work commitments allowed.

A beautiful morning of croquet in the great outdoors was followed by the celebration of member’s birthdays at the Vandenberg Ho- tel. The special birthday girl was Ilma Davis who attained her OBE Award.

Libby Smart was bestowed with Honorary Life Membership for her dedication and continued support to the club.
By Anne Stewart

The Forbes Auto Sports Club (FASC) made a come back of note last weekend following a huge setback in April last year.

The club was broken into and cleaned out, but a year of hard work and generous donations from the community brought them back to operating.

The club’s re-opener was held over two days last weekend with a double header of flat track racing that might become an annual event.

Riders came all the way from Brisbane and Melbourne, Broken Hill and Cobar, as well as a large contingent made the trek from Kurri Kurri club on the Central Coast.

Peter Baker came all the way from Harrington Point on the Mid North Coast to com- mentate for the weekend that included a din- ner and entertainment on Saturday night.

Many people commented on how well the meet was run and how good the track was presented.

The committee would like to thank everyone who has helped us get back up and running after the incident last year.

Thank you to Central West Agricentre for your kind donation of a new rainwater tank and pump, Central West Drag Association for your most generous donation, and everyone else for your donations.

Lots of local businesses jumped on board to help out with sponsorships, a vital part of a club meeting. Thank you to all of you.

If you would like to get involved, contact the club on their Facebook page or website. The next meeting will be held on 21st May for motorcross, with another one on 17th July.

There will be a kickstart licencing day for children to get a licence or those who need to be endorsed on a bike on 2nd July, presented by Aaron Rankmore of Dubbo (see his website for details.)

By Hayley Hope-Hodgetts

Easter was kind to the new Spitwater Team Outlaw in the third round of the Australian V8 Superboats championship under lights in Griffith with two drivers completing the hotly contested 400-class podium in what was a near perfect weekend for the team.

Joining team-leader Justin Roylance as the B driver in the #67 machine was for- mer 350-Class champion Daniel James. The two pushing each other all day as they worked their way up the leaderboard to be in the battle for a podium finish thanks to two impressive drives through the first two finals.

Justin was the early pace-setter for the team, while Daniel carefully worked his way forward through every session. The pair worked seamlessly through each run to improve the performance of the new JRE race engines built machine to put themselves on the podium ahead of the fi- nal run of the night.

In the end caution saw them run second and third, while Griffith rookie Paul Kelly from Queensland threw caution to the wind to take victory on what is widely regarded as the most unforgiving and treacherous circuit in the country.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with the re- sult,” said a beaming Justin Roylance. “Our goal this weekend was to learn and keep the boat straight and we managed that perfectly. Personally I wanted to be able to learn from Daniel – who is arguably one of the best drivers in the country – and work to improve the performance of the boat. This is only our second event with the new package, and the second event at a venue

where caution plays a big part in your ap- proach because there’s little margin for er- ror at Griffith. So in my mind we were big winners this weekend, and having Daniel join me on the podium was the icing on the cake!”

For Daniel, who has only made cameo appearances in the championship over recent seasons, a podium finish was a perfect end to what had been a faultless weekend. “It was great to be back behind the wheel again. I really enjoyed the expe- rience, and to make the podium alongside Justin was a great result,” Daniel said.

“It was nice too to get a feel for the boat and help Justin improve the performance. Data is great, but there’s no better way to get an understanding for what’s going on than during the racing itself. We learnt an awful lot and can go away and make a few more tweaks to the setup to extract even more performance.”

The next round at the end of May is at Cabarita on the Tweed Coast to a cir- cuit they know well, according to Justin. “That’s great because Keith was new – as was the boat – and Griffith was a circuit that we run on just once a year, so to go back to a venue where we compete regu- larly and have a good understanding, we feel confident we’ll be able to keep this competitive run alive!”

For more information on the 2017 Australian V8 Superboat Championships, visit www.v8superboats.com.au or www.face- book.com/V8Superboats

By Justin Roylance

Despite the wet weather on Tuesday the Anzac Day Harness Race Meeting went ahead. This year we named five lifetime members: Bruce Chandler, Ross Hodges, Terry Hush, Barry Wright and Robert Parsons. They were presented with badges by Trevor Currey and Michael Walker from the Forbes RSL Sub-branch.

Each of the lifetime members have made an impact on harness racing in Forbes for decades. “It is people like them that keep the sport going in Forbes today.”

The Forbes Services Memorial Club (FSMC) presented a cheque of $5,000 to the club officials. FSMC is the backbone of harness racing in Forbes with continued support every year. We cannot thank them enough.

The Forbes Harness Racing committee did an amazing job to organise the meeting on Tuesday. Thank you to the sponsors for supporting the club and the volunteers who gave up their time.

The next race is the TAB Carnival of Cups Market Day Meeting on Sunday with the feature race the Forbes Services Memorial Club C0/C1 final. Gates will open at mid- day and there will be market stalls and a jumping castle for kids – a great day out for the whole family.

By Emma Gaffney

The Forbes and District Soccer Club recevied funding under the Local Sport Grant Program. The club received $4,000 to host a Mini-Roos girls’ soccer tournament and $1,750 for training equipment. Member for Orange, Phil Donato (left) handed over the cheque last Thursday. With him are (L- R) Simon Moore (President), Ash Millford (Treasurer), Abby Nolan-Hodges, Quinn Hennock, Michael Behan and Doug McKen- zie (Registrar).