A cross between tennis, badminton, squash and table tennis is the fastest growing sport in Australia. Pickleball is a paddle sport that originated in the USA in 1965 and has upwards of 20,000 players Australia wide with an average age of 58 years.
Pickleball can be played as singles or doubles on a badminton sized court using a paddle and wiffle ball.
Batemans Bay joined the pickleball mania about 18 months ago through the Batemans Bay Tennis Club.
Club President, Garry McNally from Long Beach4 said “We have regular social games at the Basketball Stadium at Hanging Rock six times per week. It is very popular amongst retirees keen to remain active.”
Karen Jones from Bawley Point is a regular Monday player.
Karen said “I was introduced to it in Phoenix, USA five years ago. Given three pickleball courts fit into one tennis court, there is not as much running and the surface is more forgiving. It’s a great game for ‘over the hill’ tennis players.”
Mario Kefalas from Long Beach and an active member of the Batemans Bay Tennis Club Committee is one of the organisers.
Mario said “We have about 24 people playing on a regular basis extending from Ulladulla to Narooma. We run an internal competition every now and then.”
Local players Marianne Bandur from Malua Bay and Georgie Rowley from Lilli Pilli have tasted success at the national level, winning a bronze medal at the Australian Pickleball Masters in the 40-60 years age group in October in Adelaide.
For the curious, Pickleball is named after a spare boat crew in rowing, called a pickle boat in the USA. The name taps into the ‘thrown together’ nature of the sport.
It was invented by Joel Pritchard, congressman from Washington State and Bill Bell, a successful businessman.
One Saturday they returned to Pritchard’s home on Bainbridge Island, WA (near Seattle) to find their families sitting around with nothing to do. The property had an old badminton court so Pritchard and Bell looked for some badminton equipment and could not find a full set of rackets.
They improvised and started playing with ping-pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball. At first they placed the net at badminton height of 60 inches and volleyed the ball over the net. As the weekend progressed, the players found that the ball bounced well on the asphalt surface and soon the net was lowered to 36 inches.
The following weekend, Barney McCallum was introduced to the game at Pritchard’s home. Soon, the three men created rules, relying heavily on badminton. They kept in mind the original purpose, which was to provide a game that the whole family could play together.**
*https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/oct/08/could-be-the-next-big-thing-how-pickleball-is-courting-a-new-generation-of-players
** https://usapickleball.org/what-is-pickleball/history-of-the-game/