PickleballENGLAND
THE 4TH MILTON KEYNES ( MK ) FESTIVAL WAS A GREAT WAY TO SPEND THE EASTER WEEKEND .
Incredibly , the key organizers , Louise Stephens and Sam Basford , were not able to join . Louise was in isolation due to COVID-19 and Sam was occupied in Dubai . However , thanks to the London Pickleball crew , the event was a success . Louise had briefed the crew and given instructions for the weekend , and they executed flawlessly .
The crew included Gillian Collinson , Debbie Goff , Emma Robins , Faye Plummer , Elaine Brown , Mal Searle , Lynn Jacobs , Amanda Traylor , Suzanne Rouse , Kelly Little , Jo Gunter and Dave
The London Pickleball “ Crew .”
Wood , and all were amazing — always helpful , cheerful and efficient . They are all really great players , too !
For anyone who hasn ’ t attended a pickleball festival , it ’ s a social event where players of all levels go to a venue and play recreationally for as long as they want within the hours the courts are booked . It ’ s a wonderful way to meet and get to know players from different clubs and parts of the country . It ’ s where we all become one pickleball family .
The MK Festival in April 2018 was the first festival in the UK . Elaine Shallcross brought the concept back from the U . S . after she had
By Karen Mitchell
DIRECTOR , PICKLEBALLENGLAND
attended the Third Shot ’ s A Charm ( TSAC ) Pickleball Festival in Kansas in 2017 . The format worked well with the attendees and provided the blueprint for future festivals in the UK .
To give you an idea of the popularity of these events , this August ’ s SW Festival in Bristol sold out the first day with 213 people registering for 100 places , putting 113 people on standby before we stopped taking more !
The MK Festival is organized by the Pickleball Events Committee ( PEC ). Louise Stephens and Sam Basford ( pbE ’ s West Midlands Regional Director ) have been on the committee since its inception in 2018 . The committee wanted to use the festival to help develop young players so there is an Under-25 Young Persons Championship alongside the event .
This year ’ s MK Festival was held over the Easter holiday weekend . Recreational play was from 5 p . m . on Good Friday to 6 p . m . on Sunday . You ’ d be surprised how many of the 120 players were there for most of that time ! Even if they weren ’ t playing , they were chatting with friends or watching play .
The festival is a partially managed system using a board and magnets to organize play . Players are issued a magnet with their name and a colored dot indicating level of play : green , up to 3.0 ; amber , 3.5 ; and red , 4.0 +. Players decide when they want to play and magnets are on the “ Players Off ” board until the players hand them to the board organizer .
The board shows the court numbers , and the first line represents who is currently on the court . Each court has a timer , so you can see how much longer play will last before players on the next