In the end Wauchope High School regained the Jack Parsons Memorial Shield, with the final score Wauchope 25, to Cumberland 19.

The visit began with a street parade on Wednesday morning through the town's CBD area, with the members of the two teams, along with current and former staff, marching to music and reciting their respective war-cries as they turned into Hastings Street.

Thank you to the Wauchope Fire Brigade for providing both colour and protection for the marchers, and the various shop owners who decorated their shopfronts for the parade, which added to the atmosphere of the event.

Upon arrival at the school, the teams were greeted by the remainder of the Wauchope High student body, and the fantastic African Drumming group of students, put together by Wayne Brennan. The Welcome Assembly was followed by an introduction to billets, and then the competition began in earnest.

On Wednesday afternoon, four rubbers were contested, with Wauchope gaining the early ascendancy with a crushing 38-0 win in the Junior Boys Rugby League, where Sam Ylias crossed for five tries.

Wauchope also won the Mock Trial for the first time in some years, while Cumberland won a close Open Boys Soccer match 2-1, and there was a 1-all draw in the Open Girls Hockey, played on the turf at Port Macquarie.

This left the overall score at 5-3 after day one, before both teams danced the night away at the social, where the theme was "The Animals came Two-by-Two". Some new friendships blossomed as the City-siders met their Country counterparts properly for the first time.

Day two is always the pivotal day of competition, and with the weather gods smiling for a change, the full program of events was able to be completed.

Wauchope again made a great start to the day, winning both the Boys and Girls Athletics, and then producing a dominant display in the Open Girls Touch to win 12-0. However, as has been the case in recent visits, Cumberland responded to take the Open Boys Touch 7-5, Open Girls Softball 22-3, Junior Boys Soccer 6-0 and Open Girls Netball 20-19 to level the overall scores at 11-all going into the evening program.

Wauchope's highly accomplished Boys and Girls Volleyball teams put on a tremendous display to win both matches two sets to nil, but Cumberland demonstrated their undeniable level of skill in Basketball to win all four of the Junior and Senior, Boys and Girls games.

This left the overall score at the end of day two at 19-15 in favour of Cumberland, with many locals fearing that the Shield may indeed be lost for the first time at home. In order to regain the Shield, Wauchope had to win four of the five rubbers to be contested on Friday.

At the conclusion of the evening events (which took longer than expected), a 40th Anniversary Dinner was held at the Wauchope RSL Club.

This was a terrific night where many ex-students and staff were able to get together and reminisce about their involvement in the 40-year history of the event. Once again, thank you to Michelle Mullot and her fantastic staff at the RSL Club for making the night so special.

Onto the final day of competition, and not even early showers could dampen the resolve of the Wauchope Boys and Girls Tennis players, Junior Netball, Open Rugby League and Open Girls Soccer teams, who pulled out all stops to edge ahead on Friday morning to ensure that Wauchope High School not only brought the Jack Parsons' Memorial Shield back to Wauchope, but also to continue its unbeaten record at home.

Wauchope won the Junior Girls Netball 63-9, the Girls and Boys Tennis 4 sets to 2, the Open Boys Rugby League 26-12 and the Open Girls Soccer 11-0 to complete a whitewash on Friday to provide the 25-19 scoreline.

At the final assembly, Neville Parsons presented the Jack Parsons Memorial Shield to the School Captains Willis Thompson and Eliza Colby. He then presented the Most Valuable Player awards to Willis and Larissa Ward for Wauchope, and Bradley Stevenson and Suzi Monaghan for Cumberland, before giving a special commemorative medal to the members of both teams and participating staff.

Thank you to the Parsons family for their ongoing support of this event, and the businesses who sponsored the medals, including the Wauchope RSL and Hastings Cooperative, the school says.

Many new friendships were made and the tradition of "Friendship in Sport" was carried through for another year.

All of the participating students should be congratulated not only for their efforts, but also for the spirit and good sportsmanship displayed over the three days.

Thank you also to all of those families that provided billets for the Cumberland students, as without your support the competition would not take place.

Thanks also to the Wauchope community for their involvement in both the street parade on Wednesday, the Anniversary Dinner on Thursday night, and at the various events throughout the three days of competition.

Thank you finally to the staff and student helpers who made the event possible and ensured that it ran so smoothly, the school says.