More than 40 teams and 500 players laced them up for the Cootamundra Unisex Touch Carnival at the weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It marked a slight increase on last year’s numbers as the town became a hub of activity across both Saturday and Sunday, with teams coming from as far as Sydney, Canberra and Albury.
A-grade was dominated by Sydney outfit Galaxy, which prevailed 11-5 in a grand final showdown with Canberra team Pepperoni.
Pepperoni had previously stunned the highly fancied Boneheads 13-4 in the semi final, but didn’t quite play with enough spice to get the job done in the final.
Highlighting Galaxy’s dominance was their 54 tries for and just 12 against in the preliminary rounds.
Granite Transformations downed Blue Tongues 10-3 in the B-grade final, while Family Hotel Tigers won the C-grade title after toppling Flip Floppers 5-2 in the decider.
But for many it was simply another weekend of family fun.
Just ask Wagga's Darren Reynoldson, who counted his daughter Ashley among his Project Paintball teammates.
Reynoldson has been to the carnival on five occasions, while it was Ashley's first.
"I'm excited to be playing with dad this weekend," Ashley said.
Reynoldson said the team he was playing with was family and friends and pretty relaxed.
"It's a great, chilled out weekend," he said.
"It's a good way to keep the body moving and run off some of that Christmas indulgence."
Tournament organiser Tisha McTavish, meanwhile, said she was thrilled with the weekend-long event.
“I thought it was really good, everything went off well and everyone seemed to be happy with it all,” she said.
“We will try to keep it growing next year.”
NSW Touch Football member services coordinator Joel Ward, who was in Cootamundra for the carnival, was similarly pleased.
“It was fantastic to see the way the town support it,” he said.
“Right back to the Friday night before when we had a blackout as everyone’s arriving in town and everyone was helping the visitors to get to where they needed to go.
“The weekend was a credit to the community of Cootamundra.”