Narrabri Tennis group sessions to return from Monday

Narrabri Tennis has benefitted from the recent easing of restrictions in NSW.

NSW Tennis announced last week that it had implemented COVID-19 Community Tennis Guidelines for Continued Play which has allowed group sessions to be held across the state.

Narrabri Tennis head coach Shane Murphy told The Courier that group sessions will begin at the Dangar Park Tennis Centre from Monday, an expansion from the one-on-one coaching which has been in place in Narrabri since April.

While the Tennis NSW guidelines state that only four players are permitted to play on one court at a time, that does not mean that 24 players will be in action at any one time across the Dangar Park Tennis Centre’s six main courts.

“Previously we were only allowed to have one-on-one lessons, no group lessons either even if you were the same family, it was always one-on-one,” Murphy said.

“With the new guidelines that have come out it has relaxed things and is allowing group sessions to start.

“But we are still using the overall NSW Government guideline of 10 people outside in a social gathering, and what that means is that our groups are limited to eight players with two coaches across two courts, which is your 10.

“That will fit in pretty well with my groups, there are some groups larger than that but we can work our alternatives in that situation.”

Murphy said that the NSW Government’s 10-person gathering restrictions also meant that parents has to wait outside the centre, and asked them to “drop and go” for group lessons. It also means that competition play cannot yet resume.

Tennis NSW, in its guidelines, has said that tennis holds a unique advantage as a sport which requires no direct contact between players, and that players should touch racquets instead of the regular pre or post match handshakes and keep 1.5 metres away from other people while watching or attending an outdoors tennis activity.

It also urged players to stay at home if they have been in contact with someone with COVID-19 in the last 14 days, have been overseas or exposed to someone with COVID-19 in the last 14 days or have flu-like symptoms.

The guidelines said that if players are in a high risk health category, they should not be administering or playing tennis at any time during this period.

The clubhouse is also closed to players and is only to be used for administrative purposes such as taking court bookings and payments.