There's three things we know about July in Orange: it's cold, it's cold and it's cold.
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Now, after staging the NSW Touch Junior Regionals over the weekend, the better part of the NSW Touch Football community knows it as well.
The Regionals were held at Waratah Sports Ground on Saturday and Sunday, which was a first for our city, with over 1000 touch footballers and their families converging on Orange from all parts of NSW, much, much warmer parts of NSW to be exact.
Not that the cold really mattered, not if you were playing.
Standing around watching would have been a different matter, especially as the inclement weather that was forecast eventually swept through town on Saturday afternoon.
The light dusting of snow the city endured was welcomed by some of the visiting teams, most of which never get the chance to see snow let alone play what is traditionally considered a summer sport in it.
But there's another forecast we care much more about.
Orange City Council is predicting the carnival will bring about a much-needed $1 million-plus boost to the city's economy.
That's a huge win for the city; our retailers, cafes, restaurants and hotels were bustling during a normally quieter period. You know the one: July in Orange, the cold month.
Cr Jason Hamling, the council's Sport and Recreation committee chair, said it was potentially the largest sporting participant event in Orange alongside the Orange Bicycle Network's Newcrest Orange Challenge.
And the best part is the tournament will be back in 2021.
All going well, potentially, there will be other major carnivals routinely heading out way on the back of success in 2021 as well.
Orange had its well-publicised sporting precinct rubber stamped in the most recent state budget in June.
And although the perception is the $25 million ground will largely be used to attract big-ticket items like NRL, A-League, Super Rugby and the like to Orange, really, the biggest benefit to having such a complex will be its ability to stage huge carnivals like the NSW Touch Junior Regionals we just held last weekend.
And if the benefit to the wider community is as large as the forecast suggests - around that magical million-dollar mark - then what's not to look forward to?
Except maybe the cold, in Orange, in July.
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