Esteemed Australian tennis coach and former professional player Louise Pleming has created an organisation to help disadvantaged Australians enjoy physical activity and greater human connection.

The story of how she connected with a homeless man three years ago that led to the establishment of Rally4Ever was recently featured on Australian Story on ABC TV.

Local tennis coach Helen Magill has brought the program to Parkes and the first free session took place yesterday.

“We are reaching out to at-risk groups and to those who are feeling ‘stuck’, looking for connection and an avenue to better mental and physical health,” said Louise. “We are not mental health professionals, nor do we claim to be, but we have seen the benefits of exercise, movement and connection on mental health.”

Rally4Ever has developed an ongoing tennis program that aims to bring people together on court. Each session ends with a short, guided interaction that builds camaraderie and connection and is designed to retrain the brain to think positively and focus on ways to move forward.

“What we are doing can change lives,” said Louise. “I know that because I’ve seen it happen. Three years ago, I was approached by a homeless man when I was volunteering at an inner-city soup kitchen. Brian Turton recognised me as a former professional tennis player and Grand Slam commentator and asked if I would play a game of tennis with him.

“We’re now firm friends and our weekly hit-out has led to so many positive changes in his life – he’s in housing, interacts more positively with everyone and has just earned his own coaching accreditation.”

The program runs every Thursday at the Parkes Tennis Club, Victoria Street from 1 – 2pm. To join in a fun and free session of tennis email helenmagill@bigpond.com or call 0407 253 888.

The Northparkes Oval Parkrun volunteers had a pleasant surprise on Saturday when former Olympian Scott Westcott turned up for the 22nd event of the weekly 5km run.

Surprise soon converted to excitement when Scott set off at a blistering pace and finished the two laps of the set course in a new record of 15:51. He improved the record of Keith Macpherson, which he ran at the second event in February, by 55 seconds.

Scott said he was aiming for a record. “I wanted to put something out there that could take a while to break. It was extraordinarily tough actually,” he said of the Parkes course, which is fast gaining a reputation for being one of the toughest in NSW. “They found every hill they could around Pioneer Oval I reckon.”

He was planning on running the Gold Coast Marathon last weekend, but it was canceled. “We came to Parkes instead, a week early, and had a perfect little morning with the family. All my cousins, my kids and Glen’s kids were running today, with Mum watching on.”

The Westcott family made a clean sweep of the first three places with Scott’s son Noah taking second place in 21:09 and his brother Glen crossing the finish line one second later to take third place.

Scott said he was not a regular at parkrun, but enjoyed doing it whenever he visited Parkes. “I was here over Easter last and ran it with my son. I won’t always go that hard and reckon next time I will run with my young bloke to help him get a personal best time.”

Other participants on Saturday were as excited to see Scott, who took part in the marathon at the previous Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “Not surprised his time was so fast! It was insane to watch,” said Zarna Gould.

By Maggi Barnard

Parkes hockey fans will be glued to the TV during the Tokyo Olympic Games as local superstar Mariah Williams was recently named in the Hockeyroos squad to attend her second Games.

Mariah, who has a hockey field named after her in Parkes, played her first Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

She was born in Parkes and started playing hockey at the age of four. According to her profile on the website for Australian Olympic athletes, she always admired the work of Australian hockey player Casey Sablowksi for both her talent and mentoring abilities. While attending Middleton Public School, triple Olympian Stephen Davies who also grew up in Parkes, visited the school to pass on the Olympic vision.

Mariah began to excel in hockey, and at age 13 move to Newcastle to attend Hunt-er Sports High to be in a more competitive and focused environment.

Mariah achieved her first international cap in April 2013 at the age of 17 during a test series against Korea in Perth. She quickly climbed through the ranks and gained her first regular fixture in the Australian team in 2015. She competed in every major international tournament, including winning gold in the Oceania Cup.

She has represented Australia 86 times and has scored 16 goals.

Despite battling some serious injuries in recent years, her determination and drive kept her going to get back into form and be named in the Hockeyroos squad.

As a proud Wiradjuri woman, Mariah is passionate about furthering recognition for indigenous culture and has been named as an ambassador for the 2021 Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Share a Yarn pro-gram. She hopes with this opportunity she can help people learn and share the rich history and stories of the Indigenous Australian community.

In serious Bridge, which we try to play on Thursdays, you should bid without any speaking at all. You might be giving verbal clues to your partner! So, we use a bidding box where each player in turn writes their bid in silence. There must be no facial ex-pressions or gestures which might give information to a partner.

One old timer who had only played social bridge announced verbally: ‘Pass.’

“Dad, you have to use the bidding box!” his partner stated.

The old timer proceeded to pick up the box off the table and then spoke into it: “Pass!”

Best bidders this week were:

Tuesday, 8th June Laurie Keane and Helen McQuie; Thursday, 10th June Bev Laing with Suzie McNamara north/south and Ingrid Stephenson with Kevin Robinson east/west. Join us Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays. Check our page https://www.parkes.bridge-club.org or call Greig Ball 0429621712 or Bev Laing 0418114826 for more information.

By Beth Thomas