THE COVID-19 lockdown across NSW might have put the Western Premier League on pause, but that doesn't mean the Parkes Cobras have decided to take it easy in the interim.
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It's not just about keeping up their skills and fitness either; the club organised a virtual punting day last Saturday that was a raging success - and not just for the successful punters, but local businesses throughout Parkes.
Adam Parker, an integral cog in the establishment of the Parkes Cobras and member of the 2021 leadership team, explained that coach Meaghan Kempson wanted to keep her side engaged until they knew what was happening with their 2021 season.
"The coach decided to put us in five teams of four, with one person from the leadership team nominated as captain," Parker said earlier this week.
"From Tuesday morning to Sunday night, people reported to their captain and then the coach would put up a leaderboard in the group chat of an evening to keep us all accountable and push us to beat each other."
Nothing pushes athletes like a little competition, and of course the reward for the winners was the ultimate Aussie motivator - a slab of beer.
Parker explained that each team would be pitted against each other in a variety of different challenges to keep up interest.
"The idea was each week would be a different challenge, and after each the teams would be given 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 points each challenge.
"Last week was walking or running kilometres, and this week it was total juggles with a soccer ball, with extra points for the best trick.
"We managed to do 680 kilometres between us all, so it has kept us really fit and motivated while the competition is on hold," said Parker.
Not content to keep just themselves amused during lockdown, Parker and vice president Luke Nash organised a virtual punting day on the Randwick races for players and supporters, with the top nine at the end of the day getting a combination of prizemoney and Shop Parkes gift cards.
The buy-in was just $25 and punters had $1000 virtual dollars to spend across the nine races, with a $50 minimum bet on each race, with Nash the Numbers Wiz keeping track on a Google spreadsheet
Kempson's approach was probably the wiliest of the lot, as she employed a Steven Bradbury-style tactic waiting for everyone else to do their dough.
She managed to sneak into the top nine despite not tipping a single win for the day - and probably had the last laugh.
Congratulations to Mick Armstrong who was too good for the rest of the field.
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Parker said the virtual punting day was a huge success, and thought it was a much better alternative than sinking real money into every race.
"Gambling can obviously be a bit of a problem for some people out here, so we thought by limiting the money to a $25 buy-in and betting with virtual bucks instead would save a fair bit of money while everyone was locked down at home on a beautiful Saturday.
"It was also a way to try and support local businesses because part of the prizemoney was actually Shop Parkes gift cards," Parker said.
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