A newly formed Central West Regional Development Squad completed their second session of training last Saturday in Orange.
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Parkes girls Holly McColl and Georgia Sideris have been selected in this squad which is designed for players aged Under 13 years.
Both Holly and Georgia have been doing plenty of travelling this year for their tennis.
Central West region is a huge area which spans from Hawkesbury and Penrith in the east to Broken Hill in the West.
The first squad training was held in Richmond last month and the next session will be in Mudgee in a couple of weeks time.
The squad containing 14 athletes consists of fitness training and drill sessions over a two hour period.
The girls have been improving their skills throughout the first half of the year with private lessons and practice sessions in their own time.
They also play in the local junior competition as well as the Medibank Junior Development Series throughout Central West.
Holly is currently in second place in the MJDS while Georgia is in fourth place in the 11 and Under girls division.
The top eight qualify for the Champion of Champions at Bathurst in September.
With only three tournaments remaining, the girls, along with nearly 10 other Parkes players, look set to have that finals day experience.
GRENFELL MJDS
It was a good day out for the Parkes contingent that travelled to Grenfell last weekend to play in their MJDS event.
Jake Magill defeated Ben Evans in the final of the 13 and Under boys event while a welcome return to form for James Ward saw him finish runner-up in the 15 and Unders.
Georgia Sideris and Holly McColl competed in the 11s and as is usually the case, whoever serves and rallies well on the day usually comes out on top with these developing players.
Georgia found her new racquet a little too powerful and struggled to contain her new found strength of shot to finish fourth.
Holly also didn’t play her best but was happy with her fifth placing.
Bridee Sideris had her best tournament of the year and made it through to the playoffs, a well deserved result.
JUNIOR
COMPETITION
Round 2 of junior comp was played last week in nice conditions.
It’s good to see plenty of support from parents, grandparent and siblings encouraging the players. Quite a few players still need to pay their annual $25 TennisNSW registration fee.
It is due by tomorrow please.
BLUE DIVISION
Brett Taylor played some awesome forehands to out muscle Jay Arrow last week.
Brett had to show all of his skill to come away with a 3/2 win.
Josh Winter had to contain his excitement last week when he oozed with confidence to score a 3/2 win on the whistle against the much more experienced Bryce Taylor.
Great to see Tom Winter enjoying his tennis again in comp.
He didn’t look out of form at all on his return as he accounted for Ethan Hoswell 7/1.
GOLD DIVISION
Holly McColl showed some nice skills to defeat Yuan Rivera 6/2 while Georgia Sideris is still getting used to her new and much more powerful racquet.
It was working well for her last week when she didn’t let Marites Woods get on the scoreboard even though she was trying her best.
Kayla Swetland had an easy win on a forfeit so lucky she ran around in her lesson to get some exercise.
GREEN DIVISION
Charlie Strudwick is a quiet achiever and she had a good match against Mikeely Birmingham.
She showed the experience of a few terms in comp to score a 7/2 win.
Breanna Weekes and Luke Dixon had a ripper match.
Breanna is serving very well from the baseline this term as is Luke.
They were able to play out some nice rallies.
Breanna was pretty happy to score her first win for a while 5/3.
Jackson Plummer and Alex Bartley-Richardson were seen hitting some nice shots in their match.
When Alex starts to control his power, he will be hard to beat.
Jacko was too consistent last week though, recording a 5/1 win.
Xavier Scally and Maticka Brown had a good match.
It seemed to be even throughout but Xavier was securing those game points more often than not and ended up winning 5/1.
ORANGE DIVISION
Ellen Dolbel, after a weekend at Tottenham, had made a huge improvement and is rallying beautifully.
She scored a well deserved 5/3 win over Campbell Scally last week.
Campbell looked a little out of form but will no doubt bounce back tomorrow.
Marley O’Shannessy and Lachie Plummer took to the court.
This was Lachie’s first comp match.
Marley would remember only too well how nervous she was this time last term with her serving and Lachie experienced the same fate last week.
His ball tosses could’ve almost brought rain at times but to his credit, he persisted and will continue to improve as the weeks go by.
Marley won this round 5/1.
RED DIVISION
Maddy McCormick and Olivia Dolbel played a super match.
They rallied and rallied, mostly down the middle of the court as they liked to have lots of hits.
The match finished in a 4-all draw which seemed quite reasonable and both girls were pleased with their efforts.
Makayla Strudwick and Lucin Sarkissian were both seen hitting some nice serves and returns. Makayla proved too strategic for Lucin in the end with a 5/2 win.
Bridie Clowry looked like she was playing quite within herself when she took on Monique Morgan last week.
Lucky Monique is a champion cross-country runner because Bridie was controlling most of the points and making Monique do all the running.
Bridie scored a 7/1 victory.
Monica Hoswell had a close 3/2 win over Bronte O’Shannessy in the final match of the second round.