Novocastrians Ready to Carry the Baton for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games

BY JESSICA ROUSE

More than 20 Novocastrians have been named as participants in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Queen's Baton Relay.

Among the 3,800 Australians carrying the baton are Newcastle and Hunter athletes Kurt Fearnley, Maddison Elliott, Alex McKinnon and Christie Dawes.

The Queen's baton will undertake a 100 day journey across Australia in the lead up to the games in APRIL next year.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the list of names this morning which had been selected through a community nomination program.

'The batonbearers recognise the achievements and aspirations of Australians from all walks of life, from ambitious 10-year-olds to humble volunteers and well-known Australians from a variety of fields," said the Premier.

For the full list of batonbearers head to: https://www.gc2018.com/qbr/batonbearers 

Hunter Sports High redevelopment pushed back. Again.

BY IAN CROUCH and JESSICA ROUSE

Staff and students at Hunter Sports High at Gateshead will have to wait another two years for a promised major upgrade of their school.

In 2014, $20 million was allocated to the school in the state budget to demolish ageing and dilapidated classrooms with the government promising to have the work completed by January this year.

Demolition work did begin this year but in February, with the project's completion date blowing out to 2019.

Back in June 2014, the then Education Minister Adrian Picolli proudly boasted the government was getting on with the job of fixing the school.

"Now we're investing in this highschool, it's about getting on with the job making sure that we've got world-class facilities, budgets are always tight but we've made sure we've found the money to do this well overdue project"

But now three years later, Charlestown MP Jodie Harrison is extremely disappointed at just another demonstration of the government's disinterest in the region.

"This is another demonstration of this government's disinterest in the Hunter and in a school that is educating students from one of the most socio-economically disadvantaged suburbs in the State."

Hunter Sports High Image metrobc.com.au

Hockey masters tournaments to bring in millions for Newcastle

By Georgia-Lee Campbell


Newcastle is in the ballot to win hosting rights to two national masters hockey tournaments in the next 2 years.

The official announcement is expected in August however Newcastle is expected to be the preferred venue for the 2017 women's and 2018 men's national masters championships due do its success in hosting the world grand masters event this year.

The tournaments could potentially bring more than twelve million dollars in economic benefits to the region.

National coordinator of Australian masters Hockey Peter Sweeney says Newcastle would have a better chance of hosting the world league matches from 2019 if they received funding from the government.

Picture sourced: www.newcastlestar.com.au

Cessnock's Asian Cup goal

Cesnock and Newcaslte are engaged in friendly competition to host a team during the Asian Cup next year.

The Cup kicks off on January 9 and Newcastle has already secured four games including a semi-final and third place play offs.

Newcastle is hoping defending champions Japan will chose the city as their base camp while Cessnock has had some interest from Kuwait

Cessnock Mayor, Bob Pynsent, says the Kuwait head coach was very positive about the towns facilities

Lake Macquarie Games go on

The annual Lake Macquarie Games have won a last-minute bid to go ahead, with plans to scrap them over turned by council last night.

Council had proposed to end the games and re-direct the reported $89, 000 funding into other sporting assistance programs.

This comes after a prepared report criticised the games' application procedures and time span.

However, Cr LAURIE COGHLAN said the report had inaccuracies.

"No I thought the report wasnt what we'd hoped for, and showed many written inaccuracies and many assumptions that weren't true," he said.

He also stated the budget for the Games had been exaggerated by $50, 000.