The third of the group this year. Marie has been involved in tennis for a very long time and memories of her beautiful fluent ground strokes and movement around the court come to mind. A strong competitor and another one to give the youngsters of the day some 40 years ago a lesson or two in how the game was played. Parkes Tennis hopes Marie had a lovely day last Friday and continue to enjoy the company and friendship of the ladies every Tuesday morning.

A busy weekend for Parkes juniors with the TennisNSW ballkid trials, Central West 14s and 16s regional selection and the Orange JDS all on.

Sydney International Ball Kid Trials: Nia Boggs, Abbey Kennedy along with Maddy and Lily McCormick all travelled to Bathurst for the Australian Open Summer Series Ball Kid trials. All four will be notified on Thursday if they have made it through to the next round of selections.

Central West Trials: Central West 14s and 16s Trials were in Bathurst on Saturday and it was a tough day where the pressure was on for Parkes girls Abbey Kennedy, Maddy McCormick and Holly McColl. These three are in the top five juniors in the 14s age division in Central West but there were only three places in the team.  Abbey was successful in being selected for the Central West 14 and under team along with Tayla Brasier from Bathurst and Lucy Green from Lithgow. Abbey has been working really hard after suffering a bout of injuries in the second half of 2017 which hampered her development but now looks to be back on track. Maddy McCormick also played some solid tennis and has been working on her game patterns and being more aggressive. Maddy was named reserve for the team. The team will compete at the TennisNSW State Teams Championships at Gosford in June under the guidance of team Manager Tahnee Edgecombe from Nepean.

The 16s girls trial followed with both Abbey and Holly staying on to try to make this team. Abbey made the semis and was knocked out by Tayla Brasier while Holly unfortunately didn’t make it through to the playoffs.

Orange JDS: A fun day out at Orange on Sunday with Parkes players enjoying the opportunity to further develop their match play. Faith Clarke, Lily McCormick and Ellen Dolbel competed in the 12s with Ellen making it through to the semi finals. Ella McColl played in the 10s and continues to improve in a field of quite experienced 8, 9 and 10 year olds. Ethan Hunt and Gabe Goodrick played in the 12 Boys division and both boys played some good tennis during the day. Ethan just missed out on the playoffs while Gabe made it through to the semis. Abbey Kennedy, Maddy McCormick and Molly Kennedy all competed in the 14s and Abbey and Maddy were far stronger than any others in the field. Abbey defeated Maddy in the final and both girls should be congratulated for showing excellent sportsmanship and playing the final hard but fair and with all the positive values of Parkes Tennis in mind. We certainly don’t condone poor behaviour on or off court, sledging or intimidation during matches and continue to provide constructive and supportive learning environments for all juniors involved in Parkes tennis programs.

Locally Round 2 of the junior comp was played on a beautiful autumn afternoon.

Singles and Double Division: Ethan Hunt and Tyson Lennox had a good win over Xander Macgregor and Lachie Unger last week. Lachie is a big improver and relishes the competition matches. He defeated Tyson 6/2 but Ethan was too solid for Xander 6/0 and Ethan and Tyson combined for a 6/3 win in the doubles.

Nia Boggs and Mitchell Arndell continued their good play with a three set win over Lily McCormick and Faith Clarke. Faith will learn much from playing both singles and doubles this comp and no doubt improve her skills.

In a nice grudge match Archie Rix and Cody Morgan took on the lesser experienced Will Rix and Nick McPherson. It seems Will was in top form as the scorecard shows Will defeated older brother 6/4 in what would be somewhat of a surprise. Cody steadied the ship though and was too good for Nicko and then Arch and Code won the doubles to secure a two sets to one win.

Hewitts Division: Declan Quade and Toby Swain had a beaut match with Declan trying hard with his serving. Toby is getting the hang of the new format and did well but it was Dec who won all four games played.

Sam Westcott and Knox Lamont had some nice rallies in their match. Serving is on the agenda for the next couple of weeks at their lessons so they will be working hard on this area of their games to consolidate their performances. Sam won 3/2.

Volleys Division: Max Coote showed he can play some good tennis when he concentrates and last week he had Lucy Chapman covering plenty of court chasing his shots down. Max won 6/1.

Ruby Wilson and Sam Riley are practise partners and despite a little pre match banter both juniors played their match in the right spirit and had some good rallies although still adjusting to the extra court available to them. Ruby won 5/2.

Lucy Hall is enjoying playing on the full court and last week she took on Victoria Simpson. Both girls did well and it was Lucy who had the edge 4/2.

Federers Division: Poppy Fisher and Mitchell Boggs did well in their match with Mitch adjusting better to having more space to work with this term to score a 5/1 win.

Tarlei Glastonbury and Ruby Coote were seen chasing lots of shots down last week in their match in which Tarlei was a little too strong winning 6/1.

Great to see Phoebe Forbes finally having a crack at comp tennis and although she looked a little nervous she did very well in her match against Riley Jones. Never short of confidence young Riley took the upper hand to score a 5/0 win but Phoebe will be better for her experience.

Smashed Division:Hayden Arndell  and Tom Rix were pretty evenly matched and both played some nice shots in their hard fought match. Hayden won 4/2.

Tim Nyugen and Tia Dunn played an even encounter with neither player able to get the upper edge and the match finishing in a four all draw on the whistle.

Thomas Simpson showed his experience and a little too much power for Ella McColl last week with a 5/2 win.

Aces Division: Patrick Simpson and Nate Harrison had a good match with Patrick scoring a close 4/3 win while Sam Rivett and Mitchell Wirth also did well on the full court. Sam serving too well last week to score a 5/1 win.

Anabelle Van Wyk had her game face on last week when she took on Coen Glastonbury and scored a 6/1 win.

Dashas Division: Two new players to comp in Katie Forbes and Anna Davis took to the court under the watchful eye of assistant Maddy and they enjoyed their first taste of competition. Although it can be a little confusing moving from side to side and remembering the crazy scoring system both girls did very well and they finished with a 3 all draw.

Charlotte Wilson and Sienna Hunt had a great match with Nia helping them along. The score wasn’t actually any indication of the close rallies and games they had with Charlotte ending up winning 7/1.

Elena Glastonbury is certainly growing in confidence every week and she played Adam Smede last round. Adam struggled a little with his serving and returning but tried his best. Elena won all 7 games played.

CHS Tennis: Parkes High Open girls team headed to Grenfell last Friday for their first match of the CHS Western knockout after having a BYE then receiving a forfeit from Forbes High. The girls were far too strong for their opposition winning eight sets to zero and now move into the semi finals which will be played in Parkes mid June.

PSSA Knockout: Parkes Public will take on west Wyalong Public in the semi finals of the Western Primary school knockout in Parkes this Thursday. Ellen Dolbel, Lily McCormick, Nick Gascoigne, Ethan Hunt and Xander Macgregor will be working hard to score a win and make the final of this years competition.

Sydney International Ball Kids Trials Night Competition: Top Shelf players were on fire last week when they played Mrs Brown’s Tennis Boys. Jonty Ralph was doing his best but there was plenty of huffing and puffing going on as he took on young Abbey Kennedy. Abbey got him 6/1 but the set looked a lot closer than that. MBTB didn’t fill out their scoresheet so not sure who played on the Line 2 and 3 last week but Top Shelf ended up winning the match 4 sets to 2.

The Dirty Daws put on a dominant display in their match against Smashes scoring a five set to one win. Peter Garvey was the lone victor for Smashes working hard against Harry Dawson  to score a 6/4 win.

Dreamteam were too good for The Questionables last week with a clean sweep of sets. It seems Darren Fisher is defying his age and dodgy knees as he keeps coming up with impressive scorelines. Huge thank you to Taylor Dolbel for filling in at short notice. Tim bell and Pat Schnelle had the set of the night with some ripper rallies. Tim snuck home 6/5. Travis Carte sayd he’s still finding his way but he looks to be doing it easily on Line 3 and young Ellen Dolbel was no match last week but good for Ellen to have such a challenge and hopefully learn from it.

Serves You Right and ACES had a ripper match finishing with a 3 all draw. Serves You Right winning on a countback by seven games.

Chappo’s Charges had super sub Greg Magill come into the team last week for captain Adrian. This meant Dylan Morgan had to step up to Line 1 and he had a battle on his hands as he took on Alex Evans. Dylan reported back that he was close in all three sets but won none. Chappo’s still managed a win on a countback thanks to wins by Ray Juru and Greg in their singles sets against Courtney Rousell and Amelia Tanswell.

Bogan Gate Bandits are in fine form and have shortened in the betting market after their second 6/0 win. Phil Dunford finally had the courage to play Line 1 and did it easy against Hayden Westcott while Andrew McPherson had to work a little harder against young Joe Tanswell just getting across the Line 6/5. Ben Rix is looking comfortable on Line 3 and finding his range. He out classed Gabe Goodrick 6/3.