Greenback State of Origin ready to go

THE GREENBACK fishing competition is on again with the mighty blues ready to take on the quivering Queenslanders in the local State of Origin fishing competition from Saturday, June 8, to Sunday, June 9.

The competition now has the Pottsville Beach Sports Club as its base, with General Manager Michael Judd saying it was a “new era” for the popular fundraising event which has been running for 32 years.

“We’ve got the perfect venue for it; we have a fully licensed lawn bar and we will have the courtesy bus running shuttles as well,” Mr Judd told The Weekly.

The Lions Clubs of Cabarita and Pottsville Beach Sports Club will host the event with the Pottsville club and funds raised will go to local charities.

Greenback Chairman Stephen Duffield said they already had about 201 online entrants and usually get around 400 on the day.

“We were looking for about 600 so we should be on track to meet that target,” he said.

“We don’t have many juniors registered so far and at this stage every junior who is registered would win a prize but that could change.

“We have Alvey reels signed by Bruce and Glen Alvey for all the champions and the heaviest bag winners.

“We have the raffle for the $6,000 boat package from Tweed Coast Marine or $5,000 cash, plus a lot of other prizes.

“This year we are producing a Greenback Fishing Times newspaper, which is a 20-page newspaper all about the competition.”

This year a yellow leader’s jersey will be presented to last year’s winner in a nod to the Tour de France to create some added motivation for competitors.

Toni Richards has already been trying out the yellow leader’s jersey for the Women’s Champion after coming second last year and says she is hoping to go one better this year.

“I’m borrowing it from the winner, just checking it out to make sure it fits,” Toni said.

“Pottsville Beach Fishing Club has always been involved, doing the weigh-in and other things.

“I bag up the fish for the fish auction, we tally up all the species for the Fisheries Department. “I used to be with the Surf Club and do the barbecue.

Bill Brodie is on the board of the Pottsville Beach Sports Club and is the Deputy Event Manager.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be involved,” Bill told The Weekly.

“It’s our first year that we have been able to support the Lions Club and I see it as an ongoing relationship.

“The Pottsville Beach Fishing Club do an immense amount of work.

“They organise all the tents and the weigh-in and there is a huge amount of work involved and we have an immense number of volunteers from the fishing club itself.

“We’ve got a band, Sex and Chocolate, playing on the Saturday night (June 8) so that should be great.

“The Cabarita Beach Surf Lifesaving Club also help out so it’s really a community effort.”

Toni has sold nearly a thousand tickets in the raffles already.

“We have our fishing club raffles every Sunday at the Pottsville Beach Bowling Club which raises money for the club,” she said.

Bill said that Wayne Rogers, a member of the touring Golf Club based at Pottsville Beach Sports Club, had also sold a lot of tickets.

“He has already sold about $1,100 worth of tickets – he’s been outside Woolies selling tickets as has Toni so for two people to raise nearly $2,500 is brilliant.

Stephen said there has been a lot of interest from new people this year.

“Most of that is from the TV ad we did,” he said.

“It was focused on the Gold Coast so we’ve seen a big increase in entries from there, so it’s paid off which is good.

“It’s going to be an awesome weekend so we’d encourage anyone interested in fishing to sign up.

“There will also be plenty of fun for non-fishers with a great band on Saturday night and at the weigh-in on Sunday with all the raffles, the fish auction and presentation.”

See https://lionsgreenback.com/ for more information or call Stephen on 0400159371.