It was a sensational 2024 Skechers English Nationals for Richard Love, winning the mixed doubles 50+ on Thursday with Anna Linton, beating Julie Mac and David Youngs in the final – and then the very next day teaming up with Youngs to win the men’s doubles 50+.
“The atmosphere was amazing all weekend,” he says, noting that nothing was lost by switching the format to doubles-only and separating out the 50+ categories from the open and juniors. “Of course, it helps when you’re winning!”
Love, who left his job in leisure management to become a pickleball coach, is also the head coach at Norfolk Pickleball Club, doing skills and drills and group sessions with their 300 members. He also delivers education for those taking their first steps into pickleball coaching, drawing on a previous similar role with the LTA.
And the mixed doubles triumph was decades in the making – even though he and Linton have both only played pickleball for a couple of years.
“Anna and I started playing together just under two years ago – we’ve known each other since school and used to play tennis together. We went in different directions and I hadn’t seen her for 20-odd years until she appeared at the same pickleball practice about two or three weeks after I started, and I knew she was going to be good!
“We drill two or three times a week together, we’ll find a court at 6 or 7 in the morning. We’re from Norfolk, it’s not a hotbed of sport by any means but there are lots of good players here – we train together and do matchplay together.
“We thought we’d have a chance of doing well and all the hard work paid off – well, it’s hard work but it’s loads of fun as well.”
And all the players were aware that there was a potential additional prize at stake in Bolton – the chance to put themselves in contention for the England squad at the European Championships in Southampton later in November.
“There was extra pressure because it was people’s last chance to show what they could do ahead of the selection for the European Championships,” he says. “It would be a dream come true to play for my country.”
