The winning team — Franklin Family , from left to right : Jamie Basford , Thaddea Lock , Jared Franklin , Aaron Stahl , Chris Mitchell and Karen Farnhill .
every game played by their team with smiles on their faces throughout , but their joy when their team members were victorious was pure . They proudly received the Medhurst Cup , and their players proudly received their trophies and prize money —£ 500 for each player is nothing compared to the original MLP , but the players were all pleased to receive it . Roehampton Club players received £ 200 each and Scantastics won £ 100 each .
I was particularly thrilled that Scantastics , sponsored by local company Scan , got the bronze because of all the help and support the company provided in the setup of the English Nationals . After the prize money we were also able to make a £ 1,000 donation to Boot Out Breast Cancer , a local charity focused on providing equipment to local hospitals to help with earlier diagnosis .
After such an amazing opening day event , players prepared themselves for Singles day on Friday . There were 447 games played that day — 19 +, 50 +, 60 + skill events and 70 + all skill level events — and we managed to finish on time despite the venue ’ s Wi-Fi being down . Given that our tournament relies on our software , my co-tournament director Frank Arico had a backup plan , carrying his own 4G router so that we could stay on track ! Jared
Franklin and Aaron Stahl presented the medals to the winners .
Saturday was Gender Doubles day and 527 games were played .
Sunday was Mixed Doubles day plus a Men Without Partners event . We also held our first Junior event and our first Wheelchair event . The wheelchair event was enjoyed by both players and spectators . It also resulted in players from different clubs being able to network and make arrangements to play again outside of the tournament . A total of 499 games were played on Sunday .
Everything ran like clockwork , and we were out of the venue on time . This is largely due to the fantastic volunteers at the weekend , helping to set up the venue and packing it all away .
Volunteers are the vital ingredient to a successful tournament . From the welcome desk volunteers who made the first impression as players arrived , to the essential role played by court monitors to ensure that players got to courts promptly and scores were captured so that we could efficiently use all the courts , commentators , scorers , referees and those handling a host of miscellaneous tasks — thank you to everyone who helped . My biggest thanks goes to Salli Griffith , who creates our graphics , and to Frank Arico and Chris Mitchell , my co-tournament directors .
Without Frank ’ s Pickleball England Tournament System and Chris ’ s setup and scheduling of the matches , we wouldn ’ t have been able to get through 1,473 matches on 22 courts in the 28 hours of play Friday-Sunday .
Inspired by Major League Baseball , Major League Pickleball ( MLP ) was introduced in 2021 at Dreamland , Dripping Springs , Texas . The founder of Dreamland , Steve Kuhn , is also the founder of MLP and DUPR .
MLP is an innovative pickleball format involving professional players of mixed genders competing as teams . Team matches are composed of four games ( women ’ s doubles , men ’ s doubles and two mixed doubles ) with a unique Dreambreaker singles tiebreaker .
MLP English Style has slight modifications :
• At the English Nationals , all MLP English Style participating players are English .
• The players who were part of the snake draft had earned their place in it after coming in the top eight of the following categories : 19 + Men , 19 + Women *, 50 + Men and 50 + Women at the first England Selection Process weekend in Norfolk . All competitors at the weekend had to be 4.0 +.
• Snake draft wild card – each team had one wild card whereby they could draft someone who was not in the snake draft but met all other criteria ( 4.0 +, English born ).
• There is one women ’ s doubles mixed age , men ’ s doubles mixed age and 19 + mixed doubles and 50 + mixed doubles game as part of each fixture . •
* Thaddea Lock and Faye Plummer could not make the weekend but since they are the top two in the country , they were included in the snake draft .
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2022 | MAGAZINE 77