FORECAST

Warnings

See www.bom.gov.au/australia/warnings

Northern Rivers District:

Mostly sunny morning. The chance of morning fog inland. Slight chance of a shower in the afternoon. Light winds. Thursday. Partly cloudy. Slight chance of a shower in the morning and afternoon. The chance of a storm inland in the morning and afternoon. Light winds becoming east to northeasterly 15 to 20 km/h during the day then becoming light during the evening.

Northern Tablelands District:

Mostly sunny. The chance of morning fog. Slight chance of a shower in the afternoon. Light winds becoming west to northwesterly 15 to 25 km/h during the morning then becoming light during the evening.

Thursday. Partly cloudy. Medium chance of showers, most likely in the afternoon. The chance of a storm. Light winds becoming northwest to northeasterly 20 to 30 km/h during the morning.

New South Wales:

Isolated showers about the south coast, adjacent ranges and the northern ranges. The chance of a storm in the southeast. Chance of shower elsewhere along the coast and ranges. Dry and sunny inland. Daytime temperatures above average along the coast and northern inland. Average in the southwestern inland. North to northeasterly wind in the east turning under the influence of a west to southwesterly change crossing during the day.

Thursday. Isolated showers on the coast and ranges with the chance of storms in the northeast. Chance of showers along the slopes. Daytime temperatures above average in the northern inland and northeast, below average on the southern half of the coast, adjacent ranges and southern inland. Northeasterly to northwesterly winds in the northeast, south to southeasterlies elsewhere turning westerly through the day.

Byron Coast:

Winds: Northerly 10 to 15 knots. Seas: Around 1 metre. Swell: Southeasterly 2 metres, decreasing to 1 to 1.5 metres during the morning. Weather: Mostly sunny.

Coffs Coast:

Winds: Northerly 10 to 15 knots. Seas: Around 1 metre. Swell: Southeasterly 2 metres, decreasing to 1 to 1.5 metres during the morning. Weather: Mostly sunny.

Gold Coast Waters:

Winds: Northerly 10 to 15 knots turning northwesterly 15 to 20 knots during the morning. Seas: Below 1 metre, increasing to 1 to 1.5 metres offshore during the afternoon or evening. Swell: Southeasterly 1 to 1.5 metres, decreasing to around 1 metre during the morning. Weather: Mostly sunny.

The front runners in the Clarence River Cricket Association frst grade competition have the chance to rack up points if teams can get on the paddock this weekend.

After the frst two weekends of play in 2025 have been washed out, this weekend pits each of the top three teams against the bottom trio.

Front runners South Services/Westlawn take on Coutt Crossing at Lower Fisher Turf in Grafton.

It was the corresponding game at the start of the season that set Souths/Westlawn on its run at the top of the table.

But it was a game

SPORTZOLOGIST

The Australian Open tennis tournament is in full swing in Melbourne at the moment, with all the big name matches being played on the centre court named in the honour of Rod Laver. A young Rod Laver was sarcastically nicknamed ‘the rocket’ by Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman due to his slow approach to the ball, however, that early assessment didn’t stop Laver from going on to have an incredible 24 year career

BALLINA MAHJONG RESULTS – 17TH JANUARY 2025

1.Wendy Thornton

2.Joy Lowien

3.Valda McLerie

4.Janene Jarvis

5.Gail McDonagh, Pam Farrell

6.Jan Henley

7.Ronda Taylor

8.Gladys D’Anna

9.Lorna Simpson

10.Yvonne Weddup

11.Lynda Lovett, Vanessa Reynolds

12.Coral Lavelle

13.Barbara Ellan

14.Pauline Keaney

15.Sally Lowry

16.Jan Small

17.Carol Meyer, Shirley which Coutts Crossing dominated in the early stages, scoring 112 to 80 to secure a handy frst innings lead.

But with seam bowling veteran Nathan Blanch, 6-12, leading the way, Souths/Westlawn stormed back into the game in the second innings when they bowled Coutts out for 31.

They knocked off the required 64 runs for the outright win and stole a march on the rest of the competition.

Harwood hosts GDSC Easts at Harwood Oval in a game that could be closer than the team’s ladder positions indicate. In the same game at the start of the season,

Harwood, got itself into early trouble against the Easts attack, only for its lower order to blast their team out of trouble.

Opening bowler Troy Turner cracked 115 and Evan Lewis posted

58 to dig Harwood out of trouble after they slumped to 4-46. With 309 on the board Harwood took control of the game, bowled Easts out for 142, but could not seal the outright win.

Converting their dominance in games into outright wins has been the only issue for Harwood this season and is the reason they are behind Souths/Westlawn on the competition table, despite posting four wins against three wins for the front runners.

At Ellem Oval Lawrence will have good memories of its pre-Christmas clash with Saturday’s opponent, Tucabia Copmanhurst. Last time Lawrence