“If you’ve played it, it's in your blood…” Orange celebrating 100 years of Astley Cup this June

Orange High School alumni from near and far are preparing to celebrate 100 years of the Astley Cup this June.

Founded in Dubbo in 1923, the Astley Cup is a unique multi-sports competition played each year between Dubbo College (formerly Dubbo High School), Bathurst High School and Orange High Schools, and is one of the longest-running sporting competitions in Australia.

While the 1923 competition saw Dubbo High compete only against the local Sacred Heart College, Orange and Bathurst high schools have contested every competition since.

“Lawrence Astely, he was a businessman in Dubbo and he instigated a competition between Dubbo High and the Catholic school up there,” said Lynne Middleton, former Orange High School teacher and head of the steering committee planning the 100th anniversary activities here in Orange.

“For public education, this is absolutely unheard of — that a competition has been going for that long between three schools,” said Lynne, who was the sports coordinator at Orange High school from 1988 until she retired in 2013.

“That was the golden years!” recalled Lynne enthusiastically. “In 1990 we won it and lost in 2002. So we had 12 years of continuous, uninterrupted wins and that is the longest anywhere in the history of the cup!” 

There have been only four times the competition has not been held since 1923: 1924, 1932, 1941 and 2020.

The competition features only eight sports: athletics and tennis (mixed); then girls' netball, hockey and soccer; and boys' league, basketball and soccer.

Each sport is worth 100 points under the unique point-scoring system outlined in the Astley Cup constitution.

But the sports played have changed over the years, said Lynne. Rugby league has replaced rugby union and girls' soccer used to be girls' softball.

“The other two schools decided we weren't going to have softball any more because we were winning games by like 21 to nil,” said Lynne.

But softball will be back this year as one of the sports in a program of ‘old boy’ and ‘old girl’ events as part of the planned centenary celebrations ahead of the first Astley Cup round in Orange on June 15 and 16.

“So the two days prior to that we have ‘old boy’ and ‘old girl’ games to follow the same program,” Lynne said.

“We have people like Darren Gersbach running tennis, we have Toot Keegan and her daughter running the netball… different people with a background in Astley Cup to run these games so there's tennis netball, basketball, mixed soccer, and we are looking at running a program for rugby league, modified for older players.”

Orange High School will be running school tours for returning ex-students and there will be a static display of Astley Cup memorabilia and photographs from the past 100 years

And on Friday, June 16, there will be an Astley Cup 100 years celebration dinner at the Orange Ex-Services’ Club for people to catch up and relive old Astley Cup victories. Tickets for the dinner are now available from club

“We are encouraging ex-students to come back and get involved over those five days,” said Lynne, who added that she knows of a number of school reunions being planned to coincide with the Astley Cup centenary.

“We want to get the word out there. We know of people Australia-wide that would love to know about this, that have played Astley Cup; If you’ve played it, it's in your blood!”

Lynne said that anyone who wants to know more about the Astley Cup centenary celebrations should get in touch with her via the Orange High School office on 6362 3444.