The Mudgee Touch Football season got under way this week and if registration figures are anything to go by the sport deserves a mention in the next Census.

Player numbers are around the 1500 mark, which is around one in 10 people in the Mudgee area who play touch.

They go onto fill 115 teams.

There are 75 senior teams; 26 men’s, 13 women’s, and 36 mixed sides.

Plus 40 junior teams from the Under 12s and younger competitions.

The senior men’s and women’s competitions began on Tuesday night and the senior mixed competition started last night. Juniors get under way next Thursday.

The current games are acting as grading as the various divisions are sorted out before the competition-proper will begin.

There are 10 more teams than last season and the 2014/15 season was a jam-packed competition in its own right and a record-breaker at the time.

Kathy Lang, from the Mudgee Touch Football Association, said that it was  another record year for the organisation which has taken them to the capacity of the Glen Willow complex.

“With the extra teams we’re now we’re using the full complement of the fields that are available to us at Glen Willow, which is 12 all together across two time slots each night,” she said.

“Obviously a lot of people are returning but with 10 extra teams there’s a lot of new people as well.

“If there’s further growth next season it’s possible we might need to look at a third night.”

Among the new teams for the 2015/16 season is one from Dunedoo – normally entrants in Coolah - who will be making the regular trip to play in the senior mixed competition.

“It’s good to see those guys coming into play. They wanted to improve their Touch and a lot of the people already play in our rep teams so it gives them that little bit of extra training,” Mrs Lang said.

Draws, competition updates and information can be found at the organisation’s Facebook page facebook.com/Mudgee-Touch-Football-Association