Black Head Surf Life Saving Club put in a dominant performance at the Surf Life Saving Lower North Coast Branch Championships at Pacific Palms, taking out both the junior (nippers) and senior division point scores.
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Held in challenging conditions at Elizabeth Beach on Saturday, Black Head's nippers posted 290 points to finish ahead of perennial rivals Cape Hawke on 262 and Forster on 253. Taree Old Bar and Pacific Palms closed out the standings with 119 and 81 points respectively.
This was despite the cancellation of the nine and ten years swim and board events because of the rough surf.
Black Head's Bronte Kippax and twins Ashleigh and Ella Pegrum proved dominant in the 11 years age division, enjoying some great tussles across the beach and water events.
Dylan Ceccato (Cape Hawke), Sophia Lee (Forster), Miley Cox (Black Head), Finn Gregory (Black Head), Eva English (Forster), Ella McDonald (Black Head) and Ethan Everitt (Taree-Old Bar) also stood out in the juniors and posted some great results.
In the seniors Black Head again reigned supreme, finishing with 79 points, while Taree Old Bar had its best showing in years to finish equal second with Forster on 45 points. Cape Hawke posted 17 points and Crowdy Head, who were represented by just two competitors, finished with four points.
Cape Hawke's Freya Ragles and Forster's Braydan Lee were the standouts among the small contingent of senior competitors, although carnival referee Jerrad Allen said all the competitors did well to handle the testing conditions.
"Conditions were heavy - strong winds, challenging swell," Mr Allen said.
"The competitors showed some great skill."
Mr Allen said numbers were slightly down on previous years, with around 150 nippers and 12 seniors taking part, but he believed COVID had probably contributed to that.
Despite the smaller showing, he considered the event a success.
"It went very well," Mr Allen said.
"All the officials all pulled together and we got the carnival run efficiently throughout the day.
"I'd like to thank all the people who helped set up and pack up and acknowledge the volunteer efforts of the branch members."
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It was the first time the branch championships were held in November, after it was deemed that there would be too many clashes with other sports in February.
The event didn't run at all last season after it was postponed because of heavy seas and then cancelled altogether following the onset of the pandemic.
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