Nearly 100 hit the courts as Narrabri hosts North West Tennis RMS tournament

Narrabri District Tennis Association and Narrabri Tennis joined forces on Sunday to host a North West Regional Matchplay Series tournament across three different venues.

The majority of the action took place at the Dangar Park Tennis Centre, but some matches were contested at the Narrabri West Public School’s court, and others were hosted by Jack and Georgie Murray at ‘Bethungra’.

There were 99 players who took to the courts in what the tournament organisers described as one of the biggest and best tennis events held in Narrabri in recent years.

Unfortunately, the town was treated to some untimely rain, and most of the divisions were unable to reach the playoffs and crown their winners and runners-up.

Only the under-8s boys’ and girls’ divisions were completed on the day.

Narrabri Tennis head coach and the tournament’s director Shane Murphy said that although the way the event finished was quite disappointing, it was pleasing to see so many people on court enjoying tennis and many local players succeeding.

“We got off to a sensational start,” he said.

“We had 99 participants. That made it one of the biggest tournaments in Narrabri for a long time.

“That was great to see.

“We did have 108 enter, but some pulled out due to COVID and other things.

“We had players in the under-8s, under-10s and 12s and 14s right into open men’s and ladies’.

“Everything was really going along beautifully until the weather gods decided to do something different at probably about 12ish.

“It was disappointing. We were very close to starting playoffs, and looking through the results, some of the Narrabri players were in sensational spots to proceed through to the finals.

“It would have been a good day if we were able to keep going.

“It was great to see a few of our

Narrabri Tennis players playing in their first tournament and speaking to them since they had a great time and are looking forward to playing in some more tournaments.”

The next North West Regional Matchplay Series tournament will be held in West Tamworth on Sunday, May 1.