Prout’s making it his own
Alex Prout has probably the biggest shoes to fill in Country Rugby League heading into the 2018 season. But the new Parkes captain-coach is adamant he’s not only capable of continuing on the brilliant work of club legend Dennis Moran, but adding to it to ensure the Spacemen continue to be a Group 11 force.
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Prout was announced as the club’s first grade coach on Friday night, joining George Wright Junior (reserve grade), Luke Clarke (under 18s) and the league tag team of Joe Spicer and Natalie Gardiner as the club’s coaches for 2018.
It is Prout’s first top grade coaching gig since looking after his hometown team of Gilgandra in 2011 and 2012.
“I’ve been keen to get back into coaching,” he said.
“I think I’ve got a slightly different approach to Dennis and Patty (Rosser) before that. They’ve had success in their own right. And I’ve picked up some ideas off them and I have some of my own as well.
“I hope to bring a lot of fun to training and hopefully be successful as well.”
Prout has been a regular with the Spacemen since finishing up his time in the Castlereagh League. He’s hoping to strengthen the club’s defence and give the Spacies a tactical edge in the new year.
“I’ll be looking forward to implementing a structure and look to get the boys working hard for each other, especially in defence,” he said.
“I love defending. Hopefully we can limit the points next year, but there’s plenty of good attackers in Group 11.”
Prout said the club will sit down next week to assess where it was with its playing squad. Prout couldn’t confirm if that squad will include gun fullback Sam Dwyer, with speculation growing the current Western Rams No.1 will make the move to Group 10.
Nyngan Golf
A long overdue win for a couple of old timers, Ozzie Smith and Rhonda Holmes, defied the very strong head winds to finish with 31.62 net. Some super chips and putts saved the day on many occasion. They finished two over the nine hole. Just a tad behind with 32 nett was Tim Tolenew and tony Lewis. They came a cropper on the 13th with the wind behind them.
A look at Dorothy Dix next, best was Mark Fashion and Greg Herbert with 32.5 nett. There were another group who blew their chances with a boggy along the river. Murph had troubles on the same hole with his tee shot not going much further than his feet. Pin winners were Tex and Brad McDougall. Saturday players got a soaking on the fifth. They all battled on and young Nate Matheson was far too good with his hopes.
He caught the tearaway leader Les Dorrington right on the post. Further back on 36 points was Pat Walsh. Pins went to Dorro and John Wynne. Three in a row for Jenny Holmes in the mid week game. Her 18 points was a couple better thank the 16 points by Tex, Rhonda Holmes was the pin winner. In the summer point score Jenny is a mile ahead at this state. The best team in Round 6 of the Twilight was ‘Crack N Plumbers’ with a score in the hight forties.
They lost the previous week on a count-back. Outright leaders are ‘Riversie Van Park’ with 11 points. A stroke game this Saturday, the front nine for Sunday Ambrose.
Cracking Cricket
Mackillop and Sydney West put all their NSW Primary School Sports Association Boys’ Championship rivals on notice on Monday’s opening day of the tournament, stamping their authority with astonishing victories. Mackillop routed North West by 182 runs at Country Club, while Sydney West annihilated Barrier at Riawena Oval.
All seven of Mackillop’s batsmen remained unbeaten as the maroons posted 213, the entire top five retiring to give the guys below them a hit. Of those five, Sam Konstas smashed a stunning 100 from 142 balls to kick off his campaign in style while his opening partner Tom Forrester produced a great knock of 52.
Then Mackillop bowled North West out for just 31, Oliver Smith doing the damage with 4-7 from three overs. At Riawena, Brock Campbell broke the shackles and pummeled 116 from 80 balls, combining well with Krish Thakur (63), Ethan Anderson (44) and Joel Wright (37) as Sydney West piled on 3-304.
Sydney West rolled Barrier for next to nothing in reply, at one stage it was 7-7 in the chase. Sydney East also secured a dominant victory, defeating Sydney North by ten wickets. The former side restricted the latter to 9-110, before Max Robinson (65 not out) and Jake St John (44 not out) cruised home. Daniel Gauci (71 not out) led Combined Independent Schools to 5-215, his side rolling through North Coast to win by 134 runs. Sidhant Singh was superb with the ball, taking 3-4 from 6.4 overs.
Meanwhile the hosts, Western, battled through a heavy, nine-wicket loss to Hunter at Jack Brabham 1. Western coach Jordan Moran said Hunter’s spearheads were a bit quicker than his top order bats were expecting and that, along with some silly shots, had a huge impact as the hosts were skittled for 69.
Condobolin’s Riley Keen was Western’s best with 15. Hunter ran it down in 24 overs with nine wickets in hand, Harry Liackman leading the way with 23 not out. Dubbo’s Rudy Peet (1-15) was Western’s sole wicket-taker. Considering his side was thumped in its opening game last year and then went on to score three consecutive wins and come third, Western coach Jordan Moran said he’s confident the red and greens will bounce back on Tuesday. Riverina, on the back of Charlie Hillier’s 94, also defeated Sydney South West while Polding beat South Coast too. Bathurst’s Blake Kreuzberger made 49 in Polding’s dig of 177, before five run outs crushed South Coast’s chase, the side fell 47 short.
