Blue Lagoons Round Robin Pickleball Tournament

It’s been a great winter and we have had 26 people who have played pickleball on our court! Most of the players were just learning to play and so Renita and I volunteered to teach the fundamentals. Our first and most important rule was, “It’s just a ball don’t fall! Several ignored this rule but luckily we have not had any long lasting

injuries or trips to the emergency room. As our winter friends are starting to leave, we decided to hold two round robin skill level tournaments. Most of our players are now capable of playing others with a skill level of 3.0. Four of us have played for years and so we held a separate round robin. The day arrived and the weather cooperated. The order of play was decided by the order in which they had signed up. We had six who felt comfortable playing and we started our first, round robin with a rules meeting. Barb volunteered to judge the games. Her task was to keep and say the score, call any side outs, and to watch for foot faults in the kitchen and over the baseline.

Renita also kept track of the book recording the scores and I determined the order of rotation for the players. Everyone loved the positive atmosphere and we had quite a few people show up to cheer their favorite players. We encouraged the spectators to be quiet during the play and to only cheer for positive points! The players changed sides when one side reached five points and we played each game to nine. Of course you had to win by two. After each game the sides rotated so each player was able to partner with everyone else. Both players on the winning side scored a point and the tournament was decided by who had the most wins. At the end the players with four wins were Laurie and Del. Third, fourth, and fifth place were lee, Patty, and Maureen. All played well!

Prizes were donated by our friends Zita and Alan and by Mark and Renita. We also purchased brand new balls for the games. The top two winners received a new pickleball paddle and the next three had their pick of new grip tape and wrist bands. All the players also received a pickleball.

As you can see our players were all smiling and can’t wait to get back home to continue their learning against other similar ranked players. Two days later the weather held and we were able to play our 3.5 round robin. The format was the same for the 3.5 round robin. As there were only four players it only took us six games to decide the winner. I took first, Barb, second and Dan third. Renita was the anchor, she had some bad breaks during play. It was fun and challenging to play against better players and we held nothing back. Finally a thanks to Blue lagoons for building the court and to Gordo and Babs who bought the nets. Clear skies and of course game on!