Physical Culture, or "Physie," has long been the number one sport for girls in Condobolin but this year they were joined by a senior team who soon showed the calibre of the local club.  

Now the most successful club at their annual Zone Championships and a growing authority at the national level, the 'Lachlan Valley United Physical Culture Club' is beginning to build an envious reputation.  

Senior Associate Teacher of the club, Mrs Fiona 'Louise' Donnelly, attributes the club's success to many, many years of hard work, dedication and enthusiasm from her students.  

"The girl's just love it," she said.  

"It's something that I've been building up for about 30 years now and I've been putting a lot of effort into training myself in the hope that we can turn up to National's each year and prove that just because we're from a small country town doesn't mean we're not capable of doing great things." 

In October, the club competed at their annual Zone Championships in Parkes, which act as a qualifying round for the National Championships held in Sydney.  

Once again, the club came away with an abundance of awards, and a whole bunch of smiling faces.  

"We had multiple placegetters in every single junior section and ended up taking 19 girls to Nationals which was huge," said Louise.  

While at the junior level, the club has been excelling for many years, it was the introduction of the first ever ladies team this year that had everyone talking.  

"It was such an exciting prospect to have so many ladies wanting to compete in a team's event," said Louise.  

"While we had been training four teams all year with all the Forbes and Condo ladies combined, unfortunately the floodwater came at the wrong time and we only ended up being able to take two teams down to Sydney." 

The ladies teams event was held at the Sydney Olympic Quay Park Centre on the 6th of November. 

Fortunately, the talent displayed by the ladies who could make it on the day made up for a loss of numbers.  

Both teams came away with a second prize, one of which was gained by the beginner/novice team in a combined A and B grade section.   

"I was so proud of the way all the ladies worked together on the day and I really feel that if we had have taken four teams down, we would have come away with four places which is mind-blowing at that level," said Louise.  

On the same weekend, the floodwaters prevented the 13-14 year teams and the 15-1st year teams from travelling to Sydney to compete – a devastating outcome after a sensational year.  

"The 13-14 year team have never not placed in Sydney and the 15-1st year team were incredibly strong," said Louise. 

"I think it would have been a huge weekend if it all had panned out and the floodwaters hadn't impacted in the way that they did."  

While it was a weekend filled with mixed emotions, Louise feels that the results that were gained were no accident.  

ABOVE: Lachlan valley united ladies beginner/novice team (i pink) won 2nd prize in a combined A and B grade section.  

"Personally, I'm starting to understand teams more and what the judging looks like for that, so right from the get-go I had that in the back of my mind and was being really restrictive with my teaching to ensure we didn't have any variations in our movements.  

"I think that general restrictive teaching style helps in teams to keep it all synchronised, but I also think that everyone just wanted to do it this year," she said.  

"Everyone was really committed and I think the whole situation with the flood made the ladies work that little bit harder because they weren't just doing it for themselves, they were doing it for all those ladies who couldn't be there." 

With another Physie year behind them, Lachlan Valley United is taking a well-earned rest over Christmas before warming up for another fun year of Physie in 2023.