The third tie of the 2018 Astley Cup mightn’t mean much in terms of who’s going to claim the coveted school sporting prize – Bathurst High School wrapped up back-to-back titles with a narrow victory over Orange High School last week – but Dubbo College Astley Cup coordinator Craig May says his school is simply too proud to let home court advantage slip when the Hornets arrive for day one of the final leg on Wednesday.

The two schools will battle it out on the tennis courts, football pitch and hockey field on day one of the Astley Cup finale and May concedes Dubbo College will go into the girls’ hockey as heavy underdogs but is confident the overall result will be much closer than College’s opening leg in Bathurst.

The defending champions kicked off its successful 2018 cup bid with a 487 to 313 result on home soil a fortnight ago.

“There’s going to be massive challenges in hockey, netball and basketball, Orange showed their class in those sports last week,” May said.

“But we’re in our own backyard now, so we know the bounce of the ball. We’ve grown up playing here.

“We go in as underdogs, but the aim is to give it our best shot and get the win.

“There’s still plenty of pride on the line.”

May said the influence of the home support couldn’t be underestimated either.

“It’s a massive lift,” May said when looking at the difference between playing away and then at home.

“We don’t have to get on a bus at 5.30am, we can stay in bed a little bit longer and the crowd is always great. It’s a really good vibe when you host a leg.

“I think, going away to Bathurst first-up was a tough assignment. A lot of kids hadn’t experience Astley Cup before that trip, so it was a good initiation down there with their fanatical support was a real eye-opener for some of our kids.”

May was confident the tennis team would get Dubbo College off to a strong start before both soccer teams look to extended that advantage in the afternoon.

But the boys’ team will have their backs against the wall, despite going in as favourites against the Hornets.

Dubbo College plays a state final 16 game against Girraween on Tuesday and then backs up the next day against OHS, a side that had a 2-all draw with Bathurst in its Astley Cup clash last week.

“And that was unexpected, so they’ll be tough,” May predicted. “But if we play every game out to the end, the last point or the last whistle and conduct ourselves with great sportsmanship, hopefully that’ll be enough for our teams to get the win.”

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