Spring Dink 2025 a day full of pickleball!

Arriving for set up at 13:00 a few of use soon got the NVZ lines marked, and the nets up, with the majority of people arriving between 13:30 and 14:00.  

Play got under way at 14:15 with 6 rounds of timed open doubles round robin play. The "King of the Court" after these 6 rounds was Tom Butler with 4 wins out of 4, followed by Andy Owen (4 out of 4) and Helen Broughton as "Queen of the Court" with 3 wins our of 4.

These preliminary rounds allowed us to separate into two divisions, with 6 ladies and 6 gents in Division 1 and Division 2 being the remainder of the players.

Divsion 2 played another  6 rounds of open doubles round robin with Ashley Coyne coming out as King of the Division (5 out of 5 wins) and Marty Whitten taking 2nd (also 5 out of 5). Those (8) left standing played a Semi and Final with Chris Ford and Paddy Hunter-Murphy (of seniorpickleballtips.com) taking Gold, a bunch of Diadem Pickleball goodies and a trophy:

 Division 1 played 9 rounds - 6 games each - as mixed doubles - each lady playing with most of the gents. Some great battles saw 4 clear ladies and equally 4 gents progress to the Semi-Finals. Unfortunately the leading gent (Oliver) dropped out to go and watch the end of Liverpool's rout of Tottenham.... 

The Semi's were hard fought affairs over 15 point games, Andy and Keta were down 11-2 at one point in Semi-1 finally coming through against Phil M and Helen 15-13. Semi-2 saw Tom Buttler and Danielle take on Tom Watson and Emma Richards in an equally hard fought battle with Tom and Danielle coming out on top 16-14.

Third/4th place play-off went the way of Emma and Tom W taking Bronze medals and Diadem goodies. Commiserations to Phil and Helen!

The final went the way of Andy and Keta - winning 15-6  (mainly Keta) - taking Gold medals, Trophies, and a pickleball paddle from Diadem each.

Tom Butler and Danielle Barr took Silver medals, a Diadem Bag, and some pickleball caps.

Everyone seemed happy, if (in my case at least) exhausted, at the end of the day - congratulations to all who took part!