THE 2012 edition of the Astley Cup is set to go right down to the wire, with all three schools still capable of taking out the prestigious title.
Dubbo College senior campus will compete in Bathurst for the next two days knowing it needs to dig deep after being defeated on home soil by Orange High School last week.
That result leaves Orange on 822.5 points from their two ties, with Bathurst on 405.5 and Dubbo on 370.
Despite appearing to be in a poor position, Dubbo can still retain the cup if it beats Bathurst and score 453 points or more.
A win with less points will mean Orange takes the title while Bathurst knows all they need to do is win by any margin to claim victory.
While the tie is scheduled to be played today and tomorrow, it actually got off to an early start with the two schools meeting in basketball yesterday.
Dubbo College’s team has made it to the final eight in NSW and will compete at Terrigal during the next two days and Bathurst was kind enough to allow the match to proceed early.
In yesterday’s fixture, a brave six-man Dubbo Senior College team fought to the end before going down narrowly to Bathurst High School.
The home side won 49-40 despite leading 25-21 at half time and scored 55 Cup points to 45.
Team captain Marty Roberts missed yesterday’s match due to an ankle injury he picked up in the warm-up for last week’s clash against Orange, in an attempt to be right for his state duties.
For Dubbo to claim the title they will need to improve in a number of areas, most notably avoiding big losses in weaker sports and capitalising on advantages in strong sports, particularly tennis and rugby league.
The scoring system employed in Astley Cup rewards teams for big wins.
Last week Dubbo split the overall sports tally 4-4 but a 7-0 loss in hockey was calculated at 89-11 and a 3-0 loss in girls’ soccer was an 80-20 result in favour of Orange.