Bourke Tennis Courts ready next week
The brand-new Bourke Tennis Courts will be completed next week, despite rainfall delays.
The four synthetic grass courts, which also serve the community as netball courts, were irreparable damaged in June 2020, when heavy machinery was used on the surface.
Jeff Costello, of Classic Sporting Facilities in Dubbo, was contracted by Bourke Shire Council in May this year to totally replace the courts, after accidental damage caused the courts to be unplayable.
Mr Costello said this week that he had installed synthetic surfaces at Bourke and Louth on six occasions over the years, and that he has been “rained out” on five occasions.
“It seems like every time I come out to install tennis courts, the Bourke District gets rain – maybe I should come out more often,” Jeff said.
“We were washed out in April this year while installing two tennis courts at Louth, and now last Wednesday in Bourke we had to stop work due to rain’.
Jeff runs his business from Dubbo, but he is a former resident of Bourke who played in all the local district tennis and cricket tournaments and competitions during the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Jeff Costello arrived in Bourke as a 19-year-old bank employee in 1971, when he was employed by the Rural Bank in Bourke – formerly located in Richard Street, across from the Bourke Bowling Club.
After three years in Sydney, Jeff returned to Bourke in 1977 when he and another local bank employee, Geoff Betts, took over the local TAB branch from Josie Whyte.
Together with Peter West, Jeff also set up the Bourke Indoor Cricket Centre at the old Oxley Club Hall, which is now Diggers on the Darling.
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