Norwich Picleball Champ 'Didn't think it was a real sport'

Sam Day & Neve Gordon-Farleigh

BBC News, Norfolk

Kieran Cleeves/Pickleball England

A national pickleball champion said he didn't know it was a “real sport” until he grabbed a paddle.

Richard Love, 51, from Norwich, together with three other players from Norfolk, gold took gold on the English National Singles Championships in Loughborough earlier this month.

Love, a former tennis coach, said he came to sport for the first time after he heard a “terrible sound” that came from a gym.

“Pickleball is mainly about the people. It is so much more social and I have met the best people through it,” he said.

Pickleball is a sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis.

It is played on a badminton size of size with a net tennis style, which players use paddles to hit a lightweight, perforated plastic ball.

Love grew up playing and coaching tennis before he started managing Dereham Leisure Center.

“On my first day there I heard a terrible sound coming from our sports hall and went to look and there were about 30 people in it, all plastic balls nearby with a plastic paddle,” he said.

He said he, since he was dragged to the field, “absolutely addicted” on pickleball.

“It's a funny sport. I have to admit, when I saw it for the first time, I didn't think it was a real sport,” he said.

“Since then I have given up my job – my right, real job – to become a pickleball player and coach.”

Kieran Cleeves/Pickleball England

According to PickleBall England, around 45,000 people are currently playing the sport nationwide and with participation.

Love says that the sport has been “shot up” in recent years, and this year's English open in August will contain around 2,000 players.

“There are tens of thousands of people playing throughout the country, and fairly quickly, in September or October, we see the first real full-size pickleball location that just open on the other side of London. If that happens, I think it will be going up again.”

Also finding the sports addicting is the 17-year-old Ellie Tomkinson who took gold in the English National Singles Open Championship weeks before her A-level exams.

She said: “I played tennis since I was about four … I stopped playing tennis a year ago to do this full -time and it is the most addictive thing I could have chosen.”

Other Norfolk winners were Anna Linton who applied 50+ ladies singles open championship and Kevin Jay Nam, who took gold in the 50+ men's singles 4.0 championship.

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