• Home
  • Articles
    • Front Page
    • General Interest
    • Snippets
    • Mayoral Notes
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Competitions
  • Our Community
    • Our People
    • Question of the Week
    • Jobs in the Central West
    • Be Seen
  • Features
    • Rural Round Up
    • My Place
    • Health & Wellbeing
    • Loving Local Living
    • Just a Short Drive
    • Real Estate
  • Sports
    • Bowls
    • Cricket
    • Equestrian
    • Footy Tips
    • Golf
    • Netball
    • Rugby League
    • Rugby Union
    • Soccer
    • Touch Football
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Page
    • Advertise with us
    • Testimonials
    • Submit an Article
    • Subscribe to the Parkes Phoenix

Parkes Phoenix

Hedley Keeps His Eye On ‘Maintenance’ Ball

September 20, 2018 By editor

A life-long resident of Parkes has been listed in the final four nominees for the Tennis NSW Volunteer Achievement Awards to be held at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on 25th October.

For 40 years Hedley Nicholson OAM has been at the Parkes courts every week, though his daughter Helen Magill says: “Mum (Pauline Nicholson) would tell you it’s been every day!”

When asked what motivated him to take on the maintenance for 15 courts he simply said: “The complex needed repair and someone had to do it.”

Hedley recalled the days before synthetic courts when the surface was ant-bed – granite that needed to be sieved with a shovel and barrow, spread out and forever needed patching.

In 1985 the club had enough money to cover four courts in synthetic. These days the entire complex is synthetic, but Hedley continues to work on more improvements.

Every time he gets there he finds something that needs doing, as more than 300 kids use the complex every week.

Hedley’s passion for Parkes tennis was recognised a few years ago when he was awarded the OAM and the Parkes courts were lauded as one of the best country complexes in Australia. It was due to his passion that the Australian Junior Tournament was brought to Parkes.

The ultimate satisfaction for Hedley is seeing the entire block full of kids playing – not just on the courts, but playing cricket or football on the adjoining oval as well.

While Hedley says it is lovely to be nominated for the award, he is modest about his achievements. “It’s just a passion for something that I like to do.” Hedley has found a couple of good men, Brendan Hunt and Garry Barton, to help
with maintenance. Will they take over when Hedley retires? “They’ll probably be too old by then,” was his reply.

By Beth Thomas

Filed Under: Articles, General Interest

Latest Print Editions

Click here to download the recent issue (248) of The Parkes Phoenix (1.5MB PDF) – 26th February 2020

STAY CONNECTED

The Parkes Phoenix would like to thank you, our Facebook friends, for your continued support and readership!

CENTRAL WEST RURAL ROUND UP BOOKLET

Click here to download the Rural Round Up Booklet 

SEARCH THE PHOENIX

Recent Articles

  • No More Struggles With Sleep February 26, 2021
  • Young Reporter Writes Own Newsletter February 26, 2021
  • Honour Roll Shines Light On Hidden Treasures In Our Community February 26, 2021
  • Anzac Day To Go Ahead February 26, 2021
  • Snippets… February 26, 2021

CONTACT THE PHOENIX

Head Office Phone: (02) 6344 1846

Postal Address PO Box 203 Canowindra NSW 2804  

Editorial – Maggi Barnard Phone 0403 080 085 editor@parkesphoenix.com.au

Sales – Rochelle Frame Phone 0490 517 590 sales@parkesphoenix.com.au  

View our Privacy Policy.

View our Conflict Resolution Process.

View our Ethics and Complaints Policy.

Want to advertise with us?

Information on our Community Promotions.

Submit an Article

We are always looking for new articles of interest to the local community.

Please feel free to submit an article for possible inclusion in a future issue.

To submit an article, click here to use our online article submission form.

Sign up for The Parkes Phoenix Newspaper

* = required field

Copyright © 2021 · Website setup by WebSysMan