UK pickleball is celebrating after the home nations’ sports councils have all recognised it as a sport in its own right.
More than that, Sport England has also acknowledged Pickleball England as its governing body, and sportscotland have done the same for Pickleball Scotland – which bodes well for the other pickleball organisations in Britain.
On Facebook, Pickleball England described it as “the best Christmas present for pickleball”, with Pickleball Scotland taking a similarly festive stance: “All of our Christmas wishes just came true.”
Both later issued a joint press release, with Karen Mitchell, chair of Pickleball England, saying: “[This news] comes within days of Pickleball England celebrating six years of its incorporation. It has also just been a few weeks since Team England won the European Pickleball Championships – what a way to end our year! Thank you to everyone that supported us along the way to achieve this recognition.”
And Mhairi Adam, chair of Pickleball Scotland, added: “Pickleball Scotland is delighted that all the hard work growing the game in Scotland has resulted in sportscotland recognising us as the official national governing body for pickleball in Scotland. This is a wonderful day for the sport in Scotland. Our congratulations also to our sister organisation Pickleball England and their recognition on the same day.”
It came after a public statement in which Sport England said: “The four home nation sports councils – Sport England, sportscotland, Sport Northern Ireland and Sport Wales – have unanimously recognised pickleball as a sport.
“Sport England has now recognised Pickleball England (PBE) as the national governing body for pickleball in England.
“During a rigorous process, PBE demonstrated they met the strict criteria required to run and represent the sport, showing good governance as well as having established delivery mechanisms in place and plans to increase participation.”
Sport England: ‘Pickleball is rapidly growing’
It follows fraught months as the LTA – the Lawn Tennis Association, tennis’s national governing body in England – had sought to take pickleball under its own auspices, saying in February: “Pickleball is an exciting sport with a large potential cross-over audience amongst tennis players. We believe that the LTA’s relationship with over 15,000 registered venues, 1.5m tennis fans on our database and an existing infrastructure around coaching, safeguarding, facility investment and workforce could be hugely beneficial to pickleball and help it to grow and flourish.”
But the decision of the respective national sports councils clearly shows their faith in the established pickleball governing bodies in the UK as the sport continues to grow.
Sport England’s statement concluded: “Pickleball is rapidly growing in popularity, and we look forward to PBE continuing to provide inclusive and accessible opportunities for people to play the sport and enjoy the physical and mental benefits of taking part.”
