Meanwhile in Bathurst, Parkes had six juniors trying their best to make the Western team of five players. Thomas Burkitt, Ethan Hunt, Ellen Dolbel, Lily McCormick, Faith Clarke and Zoe Anderson were all excellent representatives for their schools and Parkes Tennis. Thomas did very well to win his pool and go through to the playoffs. Unfortunately for Thomas he came up against a couple of handy opponents in the next two rounds and finished in eighth place for the day. Ethan, Zoe and Faith tried hard and were in tough pools and didn’t make the playoffs. Ellen and Lily both showed their tournament experience and won their pools and after the first round of playoffs advanced to the top three placings in the team. Ellen finished first and Lily third and will be part of the Western PSSA team to travel to Albury in May.

PSSA KNOCKOUT: Fresh from their trials in Bathurst last Wednesday, Thursday saw the first round of the PSSA knockout which involved Thomas Burkitt for Parkes East along with Ethan Hunt, Ellen Dolbel and Lily McCormick from Parkes Public. A full day of practise certainly showed and when Nick Gascoigne joined Ethan the Parkes Public team proved too consistent for Parkes East. Lachie Plummer worked really hard with Thomas for Parkes East and special mention to Phoebe Usher and Shailey Budd who had limited tennis skills but were absolute champions to have a go. Parkes Public will progress through to round two where they will be at home to Forbes Public School and the match is to be played in the next two weeks.

Nepean and Warren JDS: A double header on the weekend with both Nepean and Warren tournaments on. Ellen Dolbel and Ethan Hunt travelled out to Warren with Ellen winning the 12s. Holly McColl travelled to Nepean and unfortunately there was only two Central West players entered in the 14s with Holly winning the final easily.

Victorian Country Championship: Well, a couple of days are a long time in tennis and after the success of his Sydney CHS campaign, Jake travelled to Victoria on Friday to compete in the Country Championships. This was an Open Mens division and Jake certainly met his match in the first round playing former touring pro Glen Dawes. Jake didn’t get on the scoreboard and struggled on the lush Victorian grass. Back to the practise court and much more work to do.

Bathurst JT: This weekend Jake Magill, Abbey Kennedy, Molly Kennedy and Ellen Dolbel will be playing in the Bathurst Junior Tour series event. 

Perfect playing conditions for the night comp fraternity to enjoy their Round 4 matches. Dreamteams Darren Fisher, Tim Bell and Siala AhMu were on fire last week when they scored a ripping six sets to zero win over ACES. It was the bug hitting duo of Drew Hayne and Alex Evans taking on each other. After 11 tough games it was the balls that came out worse for wear and Drew pleased with his 6/5 win.

Abbey Kennedy showed her determination when down 4/0 against Brent Tucker she kept in the match and came back to score six games in a row. Maddy McCormick rounded out GAMA’s big five sets to one win by winning all her three sets.

Alex and Brent saved face with a last ditch effort to score a 6/5 win over Drew and Abbey. The Thunder boys were impressive last week on the show courts when they scored a six set win over Just Send It. Jake Thompson, Dunc Thorpe and Toby Tanks got the job done with some big serving and nice work around the net.

Well The Ace was hopeful it was the start of a hot streak for Bogan Gate Bandits but they hit the wall last week when they took on Mrs Brown’s Tennis Boys.

The Bandits seemed full of confidence but the experience of Jonty Ralph, Corey Rowbotham and Jake Ryan was simply too much to handle for Andrew Pherso, Ben and Wendy Rix who will be looking for some alternate inspiration over the next week as they have the Bye tonight and will be looking to come back in full force in a fortnight.

The Dirty Daws were without their massive weapon in captain Ben Evans and they were duly carved up by Young Guns 6/0. A great experience for Lachy Tassell to step up and take on mark Ritchie but Mark was always going to be too wily for Lachy forcing into errors with his big hitting style. 

Harry Dawson took on the experienced Adam Jones who would’ve had plenty of running commentary during the night to put a smile on his young opponents faces. Sheridan Kirk has been working hard on her tennis and great to see Sheridan score a well deserved singles win over an out of touch Connor Morgan who very kindly filled in.

In the closest match of the evening No Strings Attached defeated Mixed Lollies four sets to two. Matt Burkitt got the Mixed Lollies off to a good start with a 6/4 win over Luke Nash who is improving every week.

Holly McColl got one back for No Strings Attached with a 6/2 win over Kayla Swetland while Alison Dowton had to work hard to defeat Cody Kirk 6/5. No Strings Attached went on to win all three doubles sets.

The Questionables have hit the winners list and could be on a roll now as both Pat Schnelle and Courtney Rousell have settled in and found some rhythm with their tennis. Line 1 Julian Fyfe had a little too much weaponry for a gallant Andrew Rice winning 6/3 while Helen Standen had to pull out all of her skill set of spin, slice and sledging to just get over the line against Pat 6/5.

The Line 3 ladies Courtney and Virginia Rice had a nice match with some rallies and a close 6/4 win by Courtney in the end.