This is a remarkable feat considering they had to travel to Sydney last week to take on Excelsior Public and play on their school courts which were multi purpose hard courts.

Parkes Public players have had almost no experience on the hard court surface and adjusted in quick time to the different spin, speed and bounce of the ball let alone all of the different coloured lines.

The team of Nick Gascoigne, Ethan Hunt, Xander MacGregor, Ellen Dolbel and Lily McCormick have not had a great deal of tennis experience.

Usually you will see tennis specific players dominating this competition but these five juniors have worked together as a team for the entire seven rounds so far.

They have put in extra training sessions to learn more about doubles and mixed doubles play.

The commitment they have shown to listen, heed advice and try to execute to the best of their abilities has seen this wonderful result for them.

Nick, Ethan, Xander and Lily have already indicated that this is the highlight of their primary school sport and this is all you can ask for these juniors is to make positive life memories.

They will now travel to Sydney Monday, August 27 and win or lose they will play two matches against the final four teams.

Meanwhile Hannah and Phoebe Potts, Maddy McCormick and Holly McColl were successful in gaining selection in the CHS Western Open girls team which will compete on Central Coast late this term.

Coach Helen Magill’s phone was running hot from constant updates from both Dubbo and Sydney.

The four Parkes High girls enjoyed their weekend in Bathurst at the Central West training camp as a good warmup for the trials. Hannah and Phoebe finished in the top four while Maddy sixth and Holly seventh will be expected to perform well and bring some good results in those positions.

Thank you to the Wirth, Hunt, Potts, McCormick, Boggs and Kennedy families along with Gabe Goodrick, Greg Magill, Val Glasheen and Pat Drabsch for spending a couple of hours helping to have the tennis centre looking spic’n’span before this weekend.

We know Hedley Nicholson spends most days at the courts pottering around and he and Gary Barton had started on the clean up last week as had Pauline Nicholson but it was just a general tidy up needed especially after the horrendous dust storm last Friday.

With many hands making much light work we like to encourage our juniors to volunteer their time which teaches them gratitude and community responsibility and also sends an empowering message that with a little effort they can make a difference.

Much Appreciated Everyone.

The term three junior comp will commence this afternoon. Everyone will have received a draw via email.

Please make sure you arrive early for your matches and a reminder that your 2018/2019 membership is due today and you will have received(with the draw) the form to print out, fill in and bring along with the $25.00 fee.

Scorekeepers have been installed on all 15 courts thanks to the Canteen Ladies purchasing them from USA. Please ensure both players use them after every game to keep score rather than tally on the score sheets.

They way there shouldn’t be any discrepancies over the final score.

Once the whistle blows, that rally is to be finished and if a whole game was not completed, no one scores that final part-game even if you were ahead for eg 40/0.

The draw for today is as follows-

This Saturday Parkes will host both Nepean and the Far West Academy players on Saturday afternoon for an InterClub training session.

Helen Magill will lead some drills, doubles play and fun activities with parents invited to participate in a 45min Cardio Tennis session. All invited players will have received an invite.

At the conclusion of the Training Session everyone will head to our major sponsor Parkes Services Club for dinner.

This Sunday will be the Parkes JDS tournament. Entries are coming in and close tomorrow night(Wednesday). 10s through to 18s are catered for with a round robin singles format so plenty of tennis. 8.30am start with round matches finished by 1pm with Playoffs following.  

All junior comp players and Parkes squad players have received information on how to enter. Any further enquiries contact Helen Magill.