Narrabri Tennis rallies against rain and COVID-19 restrictions to host a successful holiday clinic

Narrabri Tennis hosted its latest school holiday clinic at the Dangar Park Tennis Centre this week.

Head coach Shane Murphy and a determined and dedicated group of junior players battled through both COVID-19 restrictions as well as rain to ensure the four-day event was a great success.

More than 75 different players took to the courts across the four days.

Each day’s play was split into both a morning and an afternoon session, with numbers capped for each of those sessions to adhere to Narrabri Tennis’ COVID plan as well as advice from both Tennis NSW and Narrabri Police.

Murphy and his coaching crew, which included Alex Bennett, Laura McFarland, Callum Wales and George Bennett, ran the students through an introduction to forehand, ball skills and rallying on Monday, forehand revision, backhand introduction and more rallying on Tuesday, serves and match play on Wednesday and net play today.

Scarlet McLachlan. Scarlet McLachlan.

Narrabri Tennis head coach Shane Murphy, middle, flanked by clinic coaches Alex Bennett, Laura McFarland, Callum Wales and George Bennett. Narrabri Tennis head coach Shane Murphy, middle, flanked by clinic coaches Alex Bennett, Laura McFarland, Callum Wales and George Bennett.

Annabel and Camilla Kennedy, Millie Conaty, Alice Promnitz, Maddie Luff and Campbell Rushton. Annabel and Camilla Kennedy, Millie Conaty, Alice Promnitz, Maddie Luff and Campbell Rushton.

Maggie Lawty, Anna Murphy, Mason Bales, Cooper Whiting, Coen Harris and Jaxon O’Meara. Maggie Lawty, Anna Murphy, Mason Bales, Cooper Whiting, Coen Harris and Jaxon O’Meara.

Ruby Nalder, Grace Luff, Lucy Murphy, Cody Burford, Annabelle Rushton and Bridie Whan. Ruby Nalder, Grace Luff, Lucy Murphy, Cody Burford, Annabelle Rushton and Bridie Whan.

Andre Leculier Andre Leculier

Reagan Baker, Elke Collins, Noah Burford, Norah Nalder and Gracie Lawty. Reagan Baker, Elke Collins, Noah Burford, Norah Nalder and Gracie Lawty.

Abby Imrie-Dunn, Guhan Gunasekhar and Matilda Murphy. Abby Imrie-Dunn, Guhan Gunasekhar and Matilda Murphy.

Back, Hamish Nalder, Pat Welsh, front, Heath Collins, Michael Harris-Clayton, Chris Welsh and Michael Mahaffy. Back, Hamish Nalder, Pat Welsh, front, Heath Collins, Michael Harris-Clayton, Chris Welsh and Michael Mahaffy.

Charlie and Cooper Butler, Jack Hartnett, Ava Garbutt and Sophie Hartnett. Charlie and Cooper Butler, Jack Hartnett, Ava Garbutt and Sophie Hartnett.

Seamus Conaty, Percy Whan and Kenwood and Weston Burgmann. Seamus Conaty, Percy Whan and Kenwood and Weston Burgmann.

Murphy told The Courier that he was pleased the event was able to go ahead.

“It’s fantastic,” Murphy said.

“Normally we have these clinics in the first week of holidays but we’d just come out of lockdown the Friday before last week so I thought we’d give it a break before we started.

“It’s been good to be back on court.

“We have to follow certain guidelines like restrictions on the amount of players on each court and checking in using the QR codes.

“We have a COVID safe plan in place which allows us to have 50 kids per session, so it has limited my numbers a little bit, but it’s still good to get that many kids on court each day.

“After lockdown the kids are having a great time out here.”

Narrabri Tennis usually wraps up its clinics with a party on the final day, but this clinic instead hosted a picnic this afternoon.

Narrabri Tennis’ junior coaching will then return next week.