The cream of the crop from the Parkes Pool Competition are chalking up their cues in readiness to take on the best of the Orange comp in an intertown match this weekend.
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For the first time that any of the current players are aware, the two towns will shoot it out for the 8 Ball honours.
Parkes Captain Joe Van Opynen said his team is really looking forward to the day.
"We are expecting a tough match against Orange, we've seen a few of their team members in action and they are quality players," he said.
Joe said the idea came about after Orange Captain Lyndon Southwell moved to Parkes and joined the local competition.
"We were talking one night and thought it might be a good idea to organise an intertown match," he said.
"Lyndon talked to the Orange players and they thought it was a great idea.
"If it's successful we are going to look at getting other towns like Dubbo and Cowra involved."
The Parkes Pool Comp committee decided to enlist the help of the more experienced players of Chris Stibbard, Tony Marsh and Frank Van Opynen to select the team of 16 from overall performance over the last few seasons.
"We have selected a solid lineup with plenty of experience and we will all need to be playing our best pool to get the results, but I'm confident we will be up for the challenge," Joe said.
Lyndon is quietly confident that Orange has assembled a strong team.
"We feel we've matched Parkes by placing together a mixed age of players with a variety of skills," he said.
"Orange is all in and ready for this competition, the question is - is Parkes going to be ready?"
Orange players: Lyndon Southwell (captain), Bob stedman, Phil Crock, Danny Whitty, Matt Gander, Andrew Platt, Pete Stedman, Matt Goodlock, Mark Stapleton, Kayden Cole, Braydn Fahy, Kristy Goodlock.
The match will begin at 11am on Saturday at the Parkes Hotel.
Each town team consists of 12 players and four reserves.
Each of the 24 players will play seven games against their opponent, with the best of seven earning a point for their town team
The first town to reach seven points wins the match.
In the case of a six-all draw, the individual games will be counted.
Joe said it's going to be a great family day out and all are welcome to go along and cheer on the Parkes players.
"We'll have a comp after the match for anyone who'd like to come along and have a game," he said.
"We thank our sponsors Phil Barnard Painting, 1300 Bugman, Parkes Hotel and Parkes Pool Comp for all their support."
The Parkes Pool Comp is having a successful season with 136 players in 12 teams regularly competing on Monday nights at local venues including the Railway Hotel, Parkes Hotel, Parkes Leagues Club and Parkes Bowling and Sports Club.
Joe also runs a premier league competition consisting of 52 players.
"The good thing about premier league is that you have two weeks to play your match," he said.
"Players pay $50 at the start of the comp which consists of four pools. The top six go through to the semi finals, then the winners play for first prize which is half the prize pool, the other half is split between 2nd and 6th place."
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