As the warmer weather approaches it’s a great time of year to be playing tennis and this week there was a new group of budding stars in action as the inaugural ANZHotShots red ball competition commenced. Almost 30 contenders hit the courts with an abundance of enthusiasm along with mild trepidation but after their half hour of play they were all smiles.
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Federers and Nadals are the two red ball divisions and players certainly thought in their own minds they were capable of living up to their heros names. Tyson Lennox and Sam Westcott got the matches underway and both showed some nice skills and rallying. Players are encouraged to serve over arm but if they haven’t the confidence to do so they are allowed to serve with a drop’n’hit. Tyson showed his experience from plenty of practise at school to score a 6/1 win.
Ewan Dean-Moody was a super helper to Helen setting up the courts and then went on to hit too many shots back into play for Oliver Neilsen. The third match in Federers division saw Mitchell Boggs taking on Sienna Barber. Both looked a little nervous to start but quickly got into some rhythm and Mitchell scored a close 5/4 win. Adam Barnard and Riley Jones had a ripper match with both boys working hard to direct their serves cross court and remember the crazy scoring system in tennis. Adam just managed a 3/2 win.
Matilda Wells and Declan Quade both did very well with their serving and tried hard with their return of serves. It was Matilda this time who made a few more shots in play to win 5/1. Anabelle Van Wyk and Kade Ashcroft took to the court full of enthusiasm and knowledge and they had some nice rallies and both showed their preference for forehands during their match. It was Anabelle who controlled her shots a little better last week to score a 6/1 win. Two little beauties in Lara Hoswell and Charlotte Wilson were in action and did a super job to get their serves into play and with the help of Maddy they were able to put some scoring points together. Well done girls and Lara won their match this time 5/1.
Thanks to Hannah and Phoebe Potts, Molly Kennedy, Lily McCormick, Nia Boggs and Maddy McCormick for helping the Red ball players who are just starting their tennis journey. Parkes Tennis are trying to encourage our next generation of juniors to understand they can make a huge contribution to tennis through advocacy, delivery and taking on a variety of volunteering, coaching and leadership roles to help grow our sport. We are very lucky in Parkes to have a wonderful group of families who support our vision. Thanks girls.
ACES AND VOLLEYS: Mhairi Wyllie had a fabulous first up effort in junior comp when she played Meg Mahon. These girls will be partners soon for the Todd Woodbridge Cup State Finals and great to see them getting some extra match practise in. Mhairi won 4/2.
Well done to Tarlei Glastonbury on her first comp match. She took on Mitch Wirth and he is now an experienced campaigner having played comp for a year now. Mitch won their match 4/0.
Bodhi Ashcroft was all smiles as he walked off the court last week after scoring a 3/1 win. Bodhi has been making some nice progress at his lessons and it was nice to see him try comp. He played Bill Mahon and Bill also had a good match.
Sam Rivett and Nalani Barber had a super match in their first competition experience. They had some nice rallies and both made some serves into play. Sam just won on the whistle 4/3.
Sadly Lucy Chapman didn’t have the same positive experience as Henry Rice forgot to come to tennis so Lucy received a forfeit.
Caylan Neilsen and Nate Harrison also played a good match. Both looked a little rusty and will be better skilled after a few weeks of practise. Caylan won 3 games to 1.
Ruby Wilson and Lucy Hall always have a competitive match and Ruby had the edge last week and scored a 3/1 win. Thanks to Abbey Kennedy for helping out the Orange ball juniors last week as they were starting their competition experience or progressing through the stages of development.
SLAMMERS AND SMASHES GREEN BALL: Charlie Mahon started his Term 4 comp in style last week when he scored a well deserved 4/2 win over Gemmah Neilsen. Jordan Richardson and Kendra Dunn had a competitive match with some good rallies. Jordan winning 5/3. Harry Simpson and Tim Nyugen had some very long rallies and long games going to deuce. They only managed to finish two games winning one each.
Well done to Tia Dunn and Faith Clarke in their first Green ball comp matches. Both girls were promoted from the Orange court after last term and Tia defeated Thomas Simpson 4/1 while Faith played really well but Xander MacGregor was more match smart on the bigger court and won 5/2.
Marcus Moss and Coen Galstonbury also had a good start to the term with Marcus running Coen ragged to finish with a 5/2 scoreline.
Levi Hamilton put his new racquet to the test and was rewarded with a 4/2 win over Zoe Anderson in the last match of the afternoon.
SINGLES AND DOUBLES: Sadly for Gabe Goodrick who is playing some scintillating tennis after his trip to the Hay tournament, didn’t have a partner for the first round as Jack Rice forgot to show for their match. This left Gabe playing both singles matches with only one counting but he was good enough to stay and give both opponents in Talesha Ellis and Caleb Hill a match.
Molly Kennedy and Koby With played Ethan Hunt and Nia Boggs last week. All four went to Hay and showed exemplary behaviour over the 3 days. They have returned in fine form and in particular Nia played some tough matches in Hay and showed some excellent strategy last week to out play Koby 6/4. Molly was too good for Ethan but the doubles went down to a tiebreaker with Molly and Koby just edging the win.