"IT'S not over yet" - those were the hopeful words of Bathurst High School Astley Cup co-ordinator Lachlan Blaikie after his school suffered a narrow 14-point loss in its tie against Orange High School.
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While Bathurst held a 62-point advantage at the halfway point of the tie, hosts Orange High won three of the four sports contested on Friday and drew the other to snatch the win.
But given Orange's win was by a narrow 407-393 margin, Blaikie still has hope that Bathurst High can win the 2022 Astley Cup.
Bathurst needs defending champions Dubbo to beat Orange next week, then Bathurst must beat Dubbo when it hosts the final tie on June 29-30 it .
"It's not over yet," Blaikie said.
"It's out of our hands now to a certain extent, we need Dubbo to win their home tie and if they win that, we're still in with a shot.
"If Orange win next week then it is game over, so we're backing Dubbo next week. We'll be waving our red and black flags.
"It's fun to be involved, win, lose or draw, it's good experience for the kids, but hopefully we get a chance to at least have a competitive last tie against Dubbo.
"When the decision is still hanging in the balance it makes it a bit more exciting obviously."
Bathurst High began the second day of its tie against Orange with a 231 to 169 lead even though the schools had won two sports apiece on Thursday.
Orange prevailed in the tennis and athletics, but that Bathurst's girls' soccer team won 2-0 and the boys' side triumphed 4-1 earned them more cup points.
Each sport has 100 Astley Cup points on offer, with Bathurst's big winning margins in those two soccer games meaning they picked up the larger share of them.
Friday began with a thriller as a three-pointer in the final second from Year 11 student CJ Kalsi helped Bathurst force a 30-all draw in the basketball.
While Orange's strong netball side then lived up to its favouritism with a victory, Bathurst worked hard to limit the damage.
The hosts won the netball 54-34 after leading by nine at half-time, but Bathurst retained the overall lead in the tie at 320-280.
"Typically Orange is a netball powerhouse, so I was pumped with how our girls went today," Blaikie said.
Next up was the rugby league and after Orange conceded early, it then responded to score 24 unanswered points.
Under pressure Bathurst rallied and though closing the gap, when the final whistle sounded Orange had won the league match 30-20. It equated to a 60-40 points split.
"We scored an early try which I think probably didn't work for us, the boys thought it was going to be easy after that but it was 24-4 at half-time," Blaikie said.
"They came back in the second half which gave us a chance, but it wasn't to be at the end of the day. It got called two minutes early as well with an injury stoppage.
"We just called the last two minutes, in hindsight it might have changed the end score, but it is what it is."
The Astley points Orange earned from that league victory closed the margin between it and Bathurst to just 20.
It meant it came down to the hockey and it was tense.
While Orange took the lead and Bathurst fought hard to keep the margin close to minimise how much its rival would gain in the points split.
But when Orange scored with just under four minutes left to make it 6-3, the balance tipped it is favour.
Bathurst tried hard to find the goal it needed in the time that remained, but Orange held on.
"One more goal would've got us a tie, but unfortunately it wasn't to be, we went down by 14 points at the end of the day," Blaikie said.
"We had a short corner which would've tied the score up, but we ended up catching the post on that one.
"We were right in it right up until the final minute but Orange held them out, so well done to them."
Bathurst staff, students and supporters will now keep a close eye on what happens in next week's tie between Dubbo and Orange and cross their fingers.
But in any case, Blaikie is proud of the fight shown by the Bathurst teams.
"I think with kids sport you might have team you think is the favourite but it doesn't always pan out that way, it can be pretty unpredictable at times and sometimes the pressure can get to you," he said.
"But everyone has conducted themselves really well the past couple of days, I'm impressed with the kids from both schools."
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