PickleballENGLAND
By Karen Mitchell
DIRECTOR , PICKLEBALL ENGLAND
The 2022 English Open had nearly 500 players from 24 countries and ran for more than five days . Everything went well from an organizational perspective , thanks to lots of planning and the flawless execution by our army of volunteers . Everyone had a great time but as a tournament director , I was constantly making notes about things that I would like to improve / do differently for the 2023 English Open . I thought I would give you an insight into some of the preparation work that goes into staging a tournament , things that players never get to see if we do our jobs well .
Working in parallel with the planning and execution of the 2022 English Nationals , we started looking at potential venues for summer 2023 . Incredibly , it took us six months to lock down an appropriate venue . Why so long ? First , we knew we needed to accommodate a larger number of players this year given the success of 2022 , but it was difficult to estimate how many . We had 305 in 2019 and
490 in 2022 , so we don ’ t think it is unrealistic to estimate 700-800 players in 2023 .
Southampton could only accommodate us if we split the event over five days , which separated the 60 + from the younger players and wasn ’ t optimal . So , we wanted to ensure that we could find a venue where all age groups could play on the same days . There are not many venues with more than eight indoor tennis courts in the U . K . I found just six , including Bolton where we stage the English Nationals . After checking availability , this whittled it down to three in Nottingham , Essex and Exeter .
Since we had hosted the 2022 tournament in the South West , we decided to move to another region this year .
Essex has eight tennis courts and 12 badminton courts in two different parts of the venue . The fear there was that players would feel they were being separated because there are two different areas .
Nottingham has 11 indoor tennis courts and many more outdoor tennis courts , but we couldn ’ t hire all the indoor courts due to prior bookings . We were offered a total of 10 courts , four indoor , three outdoor and three more indoor . The courts were in a row , but there was no hospitality space . We looked at hiring a large marquee to resolve that issue and got quotes that made our eyes water , so that made the venue expensive and not ideal . Wi-Fi for livestreaming was also a concern .
Our board director , James Chaudry , who had played professional tennis at Telford , suggested we look at that as a possibility since it ’ s now a conference center . Telford is in Shropshire in the middle of England , so it is not too far for U . K . players . It ’ s easily accessible from London Heathrow or Birmingham and Manchester airports with good transport links . It also has seven hotels on campus or within walking distance ; Southwater , a pedestrian square with restaurants , bars , bowling and a cinema ; and Telford Shopping Centre with 160 shops not unlike Bolton , which players rave about .
Telford International Centre has three halls and many other spaces , giving us room to grow . An initial inquiry established an eye-watering cost . It seemed too huge to consider , but when the other venues were not perfect , the blank canvas — one space with all the nearby amenities — required taking another look . After gathering the details , the venue seemed perfect and the board agreed to Telford , subject to a ball bounce test and success with selling sponsorship to help fund the hire since we didn ’ t want to raise registration and event fees .
The ball bounce test found that the floors were a bit skiddy , not