Pickleball Scottish Open 2022: International players in Scotstoun

Pickleball players from 11 countries descended on the National Badminton Academy to take part in the second-ever Pickleball Scottish Open at the end of August.

But what is Pickleball? Well, the Post caught up with some of Pickleball Scotland’s (PS) team to find out just that...

Sharon MacKechnie, head of events at Pickleball Scotland. (Image: Newsquest Staff)

Sharon MacKechnie, chair of PS, said: “It is a central net game, I would describe it as a racket sport similar to short tennis.

“It’s played on a badminton court but you use a hard paddle, a bit like an oversized table tennis paddle, and an airflow plastic ball.

“One of the lovely things about the sport is that it is an easy game to learn.

"I work in education, working with student teachers at Edinburgh University and I think it’s an easier game for children to learn than the likes of Badminton and one million times easier than tennis.

“You can be quite successful quite quickly and the nature of the rules and the equipment means people at the other end of the spectrum, like what you’re seeing here with a lot of older people playing, means that they’re able to keep playing a directly competitive sport.

“We have a lot of people here who have been former GB hockey players, former Scottish international badminton players, squash players, people who in their youth played high-level sports and they’re now still able to play very, very competitively.”

This year’s event is the first since the Covid pandemic and only the second ever Scottish Open following the founding of Pickleball Scotland in late 2018.

Crowds filled the viewing galleries as the event got under way.

One unusual aspect of this event however was that almost everyone in attendance was involved in the sport in one or another whether that be playing or supporting other members of their club.

Anne Smillie, former chief executive of Badminton Scotland. (Image: Newsquest Staff)

Anne Smillie, former chief executive of Badminton Scotland, is now heavily involved with Drumchapel’s Pickleball club.

Anne said: “As we were coming out of lockdown I asked Drumchapel Sports Centre if it would be possible for us to play on one of their free badminton halls.

“Since then we’ve encouraged as many people as possible to come and play.

"Youngsters like Ruaraidh Hanson, who is only 14, went on to win a gold medal in the men’s doubles which was fan-tabulous.

“We are fortunate that there are a number of table tennis players at Drumchapel, it has a history of producing international table tennis players, who I invited to come along and play.

“We’ve got a really lovely little hub of excellent players from youth right through to not so young including myself.

“The sport is open to everybody and because of its welcoming nature we are fortunate that it has produced success.”

Anne was the chief executive of Badminton Scotland for 38 years and explained that she only discovered Pickleball after she retired.

She added: “During that time I didn’t really play any sports. My first sport was always badminton but as soon as I got immersed into the job my enthusiasm to play just seemed to dwindle.

“It wasn’t until I retired that I was encouraged by some friends to come and try this game and I’ve never looked back.

“It’s such a sociable game, it’s growing exponentially. Every day I get emails from people looking to play.

“The beauty about Pickleball is unlike tennis and badminton it’s not technically difficult to take up. The sport just has it all.”

[L-R] Lucy Elliott and Corinna Whittaker. (Image: Newsquest Staff)

Corinna Whittaker and Lucy Elliott are among those aforementioned international table tennis players that have come out of Drumchapel Sports Centre.

The duo, who met through the sport, are now taking the Pickleball world by storm after stints at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and Birmingham.

Lucy said: “I started playing about a year ago after hearing about it at the club I play table tennis at. I hadn’t event previously heard of it.

“This is the first Scottish Pickleball Open we’ve been at and so far, so good, we’ve won two out of two of our games.

“Pickleball is fun, I’m not saying other sports aren’t fun but this has definitely got a good social side to it.

“It’s something that anybody can do, it’s good for hand-eye coordination as well if you’ve not played racket sports before.”

Lucy, who is from Helensburgh, has been playing table tennis for 16 years now and says her goal is now to keep playing Pickleball as much as she can with Corinna.

Corinna added: “I work in Drumchapel Sports Centre and when we came back after Covid Pickleball was on and I didn’t know anything about it.

“Anne told me to come and give it a shot and now I play whilst I’m working, it’s great.

"Table tennis is more competitive whereas this is more about enjoying your game, win, lose, it doesn’t really matter it’s great fun and you make friends.

“We’ve been abroad now and we’re going to Spain at the start of September for the Spanish Open.

"We went to Amsterdam and won gold there, that was our first international tournament and that gave us the bug to keep doing more competitions.”

This year’s event saw the introduction of wheelchair doubles as well as showcasing the growth of the sport in Scotland, Sharon explained.

Sharon helping to work out the scores. (Image: Newsquest Staff)

She said: “We organise events because events are really important to showcase Pickleball but also to showcase Pickleball in Scotland.

“It’s a service to the players and a way of growing the sport by providing international competition. It’s a nice way to shout out to the world that Scotland can put on an event and it’s a good way to promote the work of Pickleball Scotland.

“Different organisations look at events differently, so there are organisations that will look at events as a way of making money, we don’t view it that way.

“Any money that comes in from entry fees goes back out to the event. We do however hope to raise funds for development through things like the raffle and merchandise.

“Because it is a fledgling sport I don’t think there are any organisations across the world that have paid employees for Pickleball, so everybody is a volunteer but that is what is unique about it.

“It’s a community of friends who have known each other, mainly through badminton, so we’re able to tap into people who have lots of expertise through professional sport that are now bringing that into Pickleball.”