PICKLEBALL ENGLAND
By Karen Mitchell
NATIONAL DIRECTOR FOR PICKLEBALLENGLAND
PickleballEngland is
excited to announce
a partnership with
Pickleball Magazine,
enabling us to distribute via email
the electronic version of the
magazine to our member base as an
additional benefit of membership.
PickleballEngland was formed
as a not-for-profit association by
Frank Arico and myself in December
2018. Our purpose is to create and
support opportunities for everyone
to enjoy and achieve in pickleball.
We aspire to be recognized as a
world-leading National Governing
Body and are already on the road to
recognition by Sport England—750
members and two years’ accounts
required—hopefully achieving that
milestone in early 2021. We already
have more than 1,250 members
(over 30 percent of the total number
of estimated players in England) and
107 affiliated clubs.
“It has been fun watching our
Club Locator tool fill up with places
to play in England. There are areas
where you are spoiled for choice
and others where you might need to
drive up to 50 miles to reach a club,
but we definitely have clubs up and
down the country now,” says Frank,
who implemented the tool.
In August 2019, we had 800
members and 87 clubs when
we were joined by six Regional
Directors: Sue Harris, Roberto
Rospo, Sam Basford, Jeff van der
Hulst, Elaine Shallcross and Stan
Around the World
Johnson. Through their activities,
the membership base increased to
over 1,200—a 50 percent increase.
Membership ranges from 10
years old to 90 years old. There is a
fairly even split of male and female
members. Forty-one percent of
players are Beginners, 53 percent
Intermediate and 6 percent
Advanced.
Our Board of Directors met in
January to determine goals for 2020
and agreed on a five-year goal. We
wanted a bold and audacious goal
and aligned on 25,000 members
by 2025! Little did we know at the
time that COVID-19 was around the
corner, but we are still going for
the goal!
All our plans for this year, which
included festivals, pickleball
Will and Jamie Basford at the 2019 English OPEN tournament.
coaching opportunities, coaching
certification, and Doubles Leagues,
had to be cancelled, as did our
flagship tournament, the 2020
English Open & Bainbridge Cup. We
had over 709 players registered; 320
players were from outside the UK
from 19 countries and 17 states of
the U.S.
While play wasn’t possible, we did
our best to stay connected with our
members through communications
and by setting up some virtual
activities. We hosted a Pickleball
Quiz and a Bingo session, both using
Zoom, in aid of Breast Cancer UK
and held a virtual tournament—
Solitude Singles in aid of
PickleballEngland. Now that play has
started again, we have developed
Guidelines for Players based on
government regulations.
For more about PickleballEngland,
visit pickleballengland.org. •
52 TO SUBSCRIBE, CALL 888.308.3720 OR GO TO PICKLEBALLMAGAZINE.COM