Tara Murray
One of Australia’s quickest growing sports is taking off in Sunbury.
The Sunbury Pickleball Club was formed in July and has already had more than 200 players come through the club.
Pickleball is a mix of tennis, table tennis and badminton with some unique rules such as you need to serve underarm.
The sport is played on what is the size of a badminton court with light paddles to hit a ball which has perforated holes in it.
President Tim Gadler said the club was growing at an exponential rate that they have plans to open a second venue.
“There was nothing in Melbourne’s north-west,” he said. “A colleague of mine started up the club in Jiley and we’ve since then we’ve had over 230 players come through.
“We have 30 members and for most of them it’s on the social side. Most want to play a sport, but haven’t been able to play other sports.”
Gadler said the sport was popular with older people, but at their club most players are younger than 50.
He said you don’t have to have played a racquet sport to play pickleball.
“I myself got into the sport two years ago as I used to play squash for over 30 years and nowadays I can’t get around as fast as I used to,” he said. “I heard about this sport after reading the news article in the newspaper about this pickleball thing.
“Since then it’s been such a fun sport to play and have made many new friends along the way like many that have started playing.”
Gadler said there are different levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced which are further broken down into different levels.
At Sunbury they hold two sessions on a Sunday, one that is more social and for all levels, the other is more an intermediate level for players with a bit more experience and confidence.
The sessions run from 4.30-8.30pm on Sundays as the Sunbury Recreation Centre at Clarke Oval.
Gadler said there 25 clubs around Melbourne and they will get to a point of having inter-club events in the next two to three years.
The club had a come and try day on Sunday.
Gadler said the competition is going from strength to strength. He said the biggest concern going forward was ensuring they had enough court space to cater for everyone.
“First impressions when you walk into a session of pickleball is that it is very social and always hear a lot of laughs carrying on and complimenting each other on a good shot and taking Mickey out of each other when they’ve done a dreadful shot.”
