Fleet Aces Pickleball Club in Hampshire raised £2,354 for Comic Relief with a 12-hour Pickleathon of continuous pickleball.
Forty members of the club played non-stop pickleball at Everyone Active’s Hart Leisure Centre on 15 March in aid of the BBC’s annual fundraising extravaganza, rotating players in and out from 10.30am to 10.30pm.
The event also attracted 55 ‘walk-ins’ from members of the general public who had never seen or played pickleball before. They were given a taster session by Fleet Aces club coaches.
The club donated champagne and chocolates as raffle prize to whoever guessed the aggregate score over the 12-hour session, played in a rally scoring format. The final total was 2,303 points! A paddle was also donated for auction by UK Pickleball Shop.
Many friends from other local clubs came along to support the Aces’ mammoth efforts including English No.1 Thaddea Lock and Andre Strachan and Rob Williams from Advanced Pickleball.
Fleet Aces chairman Martin Smith (pictured below) said: “A group of members came up with the idea and put it all together. Everyone Active Hart Leisure Centre generously donated all the courts for the day for free, we marketed it to all clubs in the area and ran a festival in the evening.”
Fleet Aces, which has 80 members, has a waiting list of 50 people – many of whom are yet to play pickleball – and they were invited down to take part in the event.
“We not only raised funds for Comic Relief but also raised the profile of the sport and encouraged new people to come and try it out,” added Martin. “Thank you to Thaddea Lock for coming along and donating a paddle for auction and also to all our volunteers for making it such a memorable day.”
