Narrabri Tennis head coach Shane Murphy was full of pride after five of his young guns qualified for the 2025 North West Regional Champion Of Champions RMS tournament in Tamworth last month, one of whom returned home to Narrabri as the champion.

Austin and Charlotte Murphy, Charlie Butler, Lucas Dowdell and Sophie Hartnett all qualified for the event after earning top-eight ranks in their respective divisions based on their results in the RMS events throughout the year.

Four of the five Narrabri Tennis players lined up in Tamworth, with Sophie missing out due to sickness.

It was a memorable day for Austin as he was crowned the 8-years boys’ champion. He played three matches and blitzed all of his opponents as he prevailed 4-0, 4-0 and 4-1 to earn himself the tag of the best under-8 boys’ player in the North West region.

Austin’s older sister Charlotte competed in the 12-years’ girls division and was the runner-up after winning four of her five matches.

She dominated four of those, winning 6-0 twice and 6-1 twice, but she went down 3-6 against the eventual champion Olivia O’Neill.

Charlie placed third in the 16-years boys’ division after winning five of his seven matches, losing only to champion Samuel Savovski and runner-up Emmett Graham.

Lucas went down in all seven of his sets in the 14-years boys’ division, but he learned some valuable lessons on the day and is now ready to back it up in Inverell later this month.

“It was good to have five kids go through,” Murphy said.

“It’s good to see so many kids battling it out on court and doing the tournament series in order to get selected to go through, because they are enjoying their tennis and doing well.”

The Regional Champion of Champion event in Tamworth not only determined the champions of the region for 2025, but also determined each player’s seeding ahead of this year’s Northern Foundation Champion of Champions event that will be held in Inverell later this month.

Despite being the champion of his age group, Austin will not play in Inverell, as the North Coast team that North West will go up against does not have an under-8s team to play in Inverell.

Sophie’s absence in Tamworth meant that she will go through as the sixth seed in the 16-years girls’ division.

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