The Charity Shield, a NRL game, the NRC and A-League, all in 2018, all when most regional cities are battling to get one big-time sport to come to town.

The small, mid-west town is the centre of sport in regional NSW.

They’re the two best golfers in the region and it’s very clear both Robert Payne and Mark Hale love a little banter.

Hale knew he’d be lighting a fire when he declared the 2018 CWDGA’s pennants race was between “us and Dubbo”, us being Mudgee.

Payne hit back, with mouth and stick, but, in the end, Hale proved correct. Mudgee beat Dubbo in the final. 

Back-to-back country championship wins, three finals in a row – the Western Rams’ under 16s boast a tremendous record, all under the guidance of Kurt Hancock, who is a truly special coach.

After a ‘simply unbelievable’ 250 not out in Orange in 2005, former Orange City slugger Stuart Milne did the unthinkable and bettered that mark with a stunning 271* while playing in Parkes in December.

It’s believed the mark is the highest in Parkes cricket history, and ranks in the top five Australia-wide this season.

Willie Wright and Farren Lamb are cousins, so naturally the pair shows a close bond – but this is just ridiculous.

Both came up big in the clutch during their respective Group 10 and Group 11 deciders, Wright booting the sideline conversion that gave Bathurst Panthers a 12-10 lead late against Cowra while Lamb snagged the deciding field goal for Forbes against the Fishies in a 23-22 thriller at Apex Oval.

Five straight grand finals, four of them at home, three premierships, three-straight minor premierships and since the start of 2014, Orange Emus has played 88 games, winning 79 of them. Wow.

The Chooks head into 2019 as defending premiers, again, and to loosely quote Stanley Ipkiss, who coincidentally also is virtually unstoppable in green, somebody stop us.

Honestly, one of the best days of the year. A big parochial crowd, two proud teams and in a stand-alone fixture, the Forbes-Parkes June long weekend derby was a bottler in 2018.

It had everything: Parkes played with 12 men for 50 minutes after Brandon Paige was sent off for his part in a stink, while the swoopers stars shone with Staines, Burke and Grace leading the charge in an 18-6 cracker.

Hugely skilled, fast, physical and with plenty of feeling, when Souths and Panthers go stick-to-stick it’s genuinely one of the best spectacles you’ll see in Central West sport.

On this occasion, Brandon Horner hit home four goals in a 7-3 win for Panthers.

You could argue it was the club’s best win in 2018, during a season that included a 17^th grand final in 18 seasons – a seventh in a row, in fact – and a 12^th men’s PLH title. The most successful sporting team in the region. 

Small-town footy isn’t pretty, in fact it never is. But it is pure, and this year’s Woodbridge Cup grand final was always going to be one for the rugby league purist.

It turned out to be one for the record books, too.

A record-breaking crowd turned out to witness Manildra in its first home grand final in 19 years, while Trundle held on in the face of a mighty charging Rhinos side to win 26-22 and claim back-to-back titles, a first for the Boomers.

From emergency, to rank outsider, to incredible triumph, in conditions you’ll never see again.

Cosmologist’s stunning CDRA victory in the region’s country championship qualifier back in February is the sporting moment of 2018.

Comologist was the third emergency on race day morning heading into the $150,000 race but with Brett Thompson scratching three of his horses from the field Dean Mirfin’s gelding earned a start in the race at the Mudgee Race Club.

Cosmo splashed his way to victory as torrential rain dumped pre-race and throughout the 1400-metre qualifier, the horses only emerging from the mist to the public late on the home straight.