Top of their class
ALMOST 3000 Central Queensland fans were treated to a night of bull riding highs and lows as riders from around the nation converged on the Capricorn Coast.It was for the inaugural Touring Pro Series event at the St Brendan's College Arena on Saturday night.St Brendan's College rose to the challenge with a clean sweep of the steer ride and junior bull riding competitions as well as taking the lead 2-1 in the annual St Brendan's versus Nudgee Challenge Perpetual Trophy much to the delight of the home crowd.In round 1 of the competition, 17 riders made would be successful in making it to the eight second whistle with runner up Rookie of the Year, Tully's Sam O'Connor setting the pace with an impressive 87.5 point score on Trevor and Tony Dunne's - Hang Tough in the opening section of the competition.Dave Kennedy continued his consistent form with an 86 point score aboard the Brian Duggan owned, Prison Break followed by Westwood, Qld 2011 Rookie of the Year, Jesse Van Nek marking 84.5 on another Dunne owned bull, Black Ice to fill the top three positions going into the championship round.Included in the top 10 qualifiers were crowd favourites and ex St Brendan's College students, Guy Ford and Mitch and Justin Paton who were all determined to do well and even though they were unsuccessful in the final they put out an exceptional effort and tested some of the sports toughest bulls in front of their old school mates.It wasn't until the fifth rider in the championship round that a score would be posted with Gressford NSW bull rider Cliff Richardson conquering Flash for Cash for an 83.5 score, however there were five more riders to go including Kennedy, O'Connor, Van Nek and Wilkinson. One by one the bulls continued to dominate and win the match ups until it came down to the last match up of the night, round 1 winner O'Connor and the locally owned Brian Duggan bull Cochise.O'Connor was no match for the black and white spotted bull who defeated one of the sport's rising young stars, giving Cliff Richardson his first win ever on the PBR Tour and a strong start to the 2012/2013 season.PBR general manager Glen Young said this was certainly a unique event for PBR. "To see the students actively and enthusiastically involved with the set up and maintenance of the arena through to competing in the College Rodeo component all contributed to the overall success of the event," Mr Young said."We are well aware of the great talent this school has produced in the past and after watching these students compete on Saturday we are very excited to see that we have more talent that will be joining our PBR Tour in the near future."
