The Dubbo Masters Hockey teams that took on Parkes across the weekend have secured their first win in what is hoped will be a long running contest.
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The women's side downed their Parkes rivals 3 - 1, while the men levelled out at a 2 - 2 draw, ensuring the inaugural Challenge trophy stayed in Dubbo.
The action at Pioneer Park was overseen by a harsh sun and oppressive warmth, but all sides involved toughed it out to deliver some of the best, most experienced play of the year.
Dubbo's Tracey Hardie-Jones said the Challenge delivered on every bit of promised that had been expected.
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"Both sides are pretty competitive and we've always had that bit of competitiveness against each other, from opens upwards it's always been pretty even whenever we meet, it's always that want to win from both sides," Hardie-Jones said.
"It was a hard fought game, and most of them have been against Parkes we normally come up against each other quit a bit in different tournaments and state championships, so it's always a good test."
The competition, and the broader Western Master's League season, has been a good way to give both sides more playing time in a year where many games have already been cancelled due to COVID-19.
"We've been able to have those good, competitive games once a month, we took a team to the Central Coast a few weeks ago, we got to the final to that as a Western team and were beat by one goal by a Sydney team," Hardie-Jones said.
"That gave us a bit of time to catch up with different people who we haven't seen this year because of COVID, we've all been pretty eager to get that extra level from local competition and go to that next step up."
While COVID brought about the Challenge match-up, the battle for the trophy will return next year if all goes to plan.
"It's brought something to us that now we can build on, hopefully when COVID's not around, we'll be able to keep those and keep them running," Hardie-Jones said.
While Dubbo's Kate Corcoran and Parkes' Janelle Thompson were both awarded player of the match honours, Hardie-Jones said the whole home-team had put in a complete performance deserving of praise.
"Everyone's played to their full potential, everyone's brought something to the team, it's been a really good vibe this year, there's been a lot of different clubs coming together into the team, which has brought a lot of friendships that wouldn't have happened before," Hardie-Jones said.
"With the game on the weekend, I thought our coach Graeme Waters had the team playing that well together that everyone was doing their part in getting that win, everyone played really well."