Bogan Gate Bunnies rule the court

For three years teams of ladies from Bogan Gate, Trundle, Tullamore and Tottenham have been coming together to play netball. The four teams make up the Western Netball Competition which was first sparked by an idea from Tullamore's Adriana Stevenson. Adriana was looking for a local competition for her high school daughter to participate in. She posted her idea to the town's community Facebook noticeboards to see if anyone would be interested and three years later the competition is thriving. It was originally intended for the T-towns of Trundle, Tullamore and Tottenham but Bogan Gate saw the competition idea and couldn't miss out, jumping right on board and have dominated the competition since. The Bogan Gate Bunnies have won the competition each year with their most recent competition campaign ending in a 42-21 grand final victory over the Trundle Gems. But the Western Netball Competition is much more than just winning. Bogan Gate Bunnies player Katie Britt said the competition is an opportunity for local women to connect within their local community. "It's also an opportunity to work on fitness and be active. Most other sporting competitions require us to drive to either Parkes or Condobolin," she said. The winning Bogan Gate team is made up of girls who either reside within or around Bogan Gate. "A few of the girls have many years of netball experience which has helped," Katie added. The competition is run over 12 weeks with each round taking place on a Sunday morning. All four teams play in the same town each week playing two games back-to-back which are 40-minutes and are self-umpired. The Western Competition is not affiliated with Netball NSW making it more accessible for everyone as membership fees do not apply. But not being affiliated with Netball NSW also means it is hard for some towns to apply for funding to improve their courts. Bogan Gate has been lucky enough to utilise the Bogan Gate multi-purpose courts for as long as the competition has been running. "It's been awesome that we've been able to have those facilities to start with but also be able to use them. Some of the other facilities at the other towns are not so great. We are very lucky that our facilities are fantastic." Like most sporting competitions the Western Netball Competition is run off volunteers and community support. "Lots of people volunteer their time to make the competition work," Katie said. A family-run Parkes business, InPressed Trophies and Engraving, donated medals for this year's competition winners and Blatches and Magills Transport also individually donated to the Bogan Gate team. As another senior competition finishes the idea of a junior Western Netball Competition is also in the works with some of this year's netball ladies running a junior netball clinic. "They were trying to get a junior competition up and running which is a little bit more challenging so instead of a competition we've been running a junior netball clinic in Trundle," Katie said. "We're trying to upskill the young kids and give them an opportunity to learn a new sport too." Katie is a big supporter of the competition and said, "it's a good day out in the sun for everyone and a good excuse to get out of the house, it's awesome."

Bogan Gate Bunnies rule the court

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