Pickleball England’s North West Regional Director, Elaine Shallcross, is to receive the British Empire Medal in a ceremony at Lancaster Castle on Friday.
The award has been bestowed upon Elaine for her years of dedicated voluntary work aimed at introducing new players to the sport and aiding people of all ages and backgrounds in getting active by playing pickleball.
This marks the first time an honour has been awarded in the UK for services to pickleball and is an important milestone as the sport continues to grow throughout the country.
Elaine first heard about the award in a letter from the Cabinet Office, and describes it as an emotional moment. “By the time I got to the second line I burst into tears,” she told us.
Elaine was possibly one of the earliest adopters of the sport in the UK, first playing in Thailand in 2014, and bringing it back to the UK.
Thanks to her background in local authority sports development, she was able to use her connections to bring the sport to some 50+ mornings in Burnley, which helped kickstart pickleball in the North West.
Before long another group was established in Leigh, and from there it began to snowball.
This was all achieved long before Pickleball England was founded, and so Elaine was the natural choice to become the regional director for the North West, where she continues to work hard promoting the sport and creating sessions and competitions for local players.
Speaking about the award, Elaine was over the moon to be recognised for her years of hard work.
“I’ve done 53 years volunteering in sport, but it’s really the last nine to 10 years of doing pickleball that’s obviously brought the award to the fore.
“I’m definitely pleased on a personal score for me. It’s a great honour and I’m thrilled to pieces. Secondly, I’m pleased because it’s the first time pickleball as a sport has been recognised outside of its own arena.
“Thirdly, being a true northern lass, I’m really pleased that it’s come to the North West as a first!”
Pickleball England’s Karen Mitchell was effusive in her praise for her colleague: “This is a fantastic well-deserved recognition for Elaine. After a lifetime of involvement in sport, we are blessed that Elaine found pickleball (she learned to play in Thailand) and she loved it enough to want to share with everyone that she meets.
“In addition to developing growth through supporting new clubs in the NW region, Elaine and her helpers have the largest number of Doubles League divisions in the country.
“Elaine has also developed a large number of Pickleball Leaders personally by tutoring new leaders but also enabling the development of leaders in other regions by authoring the Pickleball Leaders Certification programme that has now been rolled out across the country.
“The Board is thrilled for Elaine to receive this recognition. We might all need to curtsey to Elaine the next time we see her!”
Even in light of this achievement, Elaine is keen to stress that this has been a team effort, and to praise the work of everyone around her, especially her Pickleball England colleagues.
“It’s all been done for the love of the game. We’re all volunteers. We don’t get paid, and I think what’s been achieved in pickleball with the support of volunteers, with no budget and all our funds being self-generated, the work is phenomenal.
“The results that have been produced over the last three years since pickleball’s inception, when you think that they’ve not got any paid professionals or a budget to work with, it’s incredible.”
