After a long seven-month season, the finals of the second edition of the South East Pickleball League, held at David Lloyd Woking, certainly did not disappoint.
The final came down to a thrilling 21-20 Dreambreaker, as the London Pickleball Anacondas came through to secure the win against the Surrey Downs Hawks.
With both teams splitting a match apiece in both the gendered and mixed doubles, it required a Dreambreaker to separate the two sides.
The Hawks got off to a fast start and looked to be cruising towards the win, but a superb comeback from the side featuring Faye Plummer, Alex Woolf and Pei Chuan Kao brought the game back to 20-20 and saw Caleb Cuddihy serving for the match.
Caleb played the point superbly to secure the trophy for the Anacondas, but the losing finalists will surely be extremely proud after a year in which they climbed all the way from Division 3 in April to the Premier Division, ultimately finishing second overall.
Speaking to Dink Pickleball, Louise Stephens, co-director of the tournament and founder of London Pickleball, was full of praise for her players:
“I’ve got to say, what a final! It went the distance. I think our London Anacondas were something like 18-12 down, and came back and won it 21-20.
“Unbelievable, the players, all the supporting players as well, incredible. As the person who started London Pickleball, I can’t tell you how proud I am. It’s a great achievement.”
Discussing the tournament as a whole, director Andre Strachan said: “The second year has exceeded our expectations. It’s another offering for clubs as well, and it’s really engaged not just the strongest players in this area of the country but players who have just recently been introduced as well.”
The eventual champion London Pickleball Anacondas arrived in the final having come through their quarter-final against the David Lloyd Misfits, to set up a semi-final matchup with the David Lloyd Southampton Foxes.
With the other set of quarter-finals seeing the London Pickleball Dragons advancing alongside the Surrey Downs Hawks; this meant all four teams who were in the Premier Division at the last round of the South East Pickleball League in October were the semi-finalists here.
Despite leading the league heading into the finals, having won all three matches at the last round, the LP Dragons were beaten in their semi-final by the Hawks, who would be joined in the final by the Anacondas after they held off the DL Southampton Foxes.
The LP Dragons were able to quickly put any disappointment to one side, winning their bronze medal match to take a well-deserved third place in this year’s SEPL.
Congratulations to Andre Strachan and Louise Stephens for staging fantastic year long League event with a fitting final event. Both Andre and Louise did this on a voluntary basis and the League raised funds for PbE. We are hoping that the format will be rolled out to more regions in 2024.