“I’d never heard about it before, and I’ve worked in and out of leisure for 26 years now!”
Bluecoat Sports is a registered charity, established to benefit the pupils at the independent Christ’s Hospital school and the wider community in the Horsham, West Sussex area by providing sporting facilities. Any surplus money generated is used to enhance their provision and improve the wellbeing of the school’s pupils and the club’s members.
Assistant manager Neil Williams’s remit includes developing new activities to offer, and when he was approached by a member who suggested pickleball, he had to take to Google to find out what it was.
When he saw it, he thought it would suit the club’s demographic well.
“We’re lucky enough that we can do whatever we want with our courts within reason,” says Neil. They made the four badminton courts available for pickleball trials, and were deluged with interest. “And I went, ‘Well, this is going to work, isn’t it?'”
Since then, Bluecoat Sports has also become the home facility for the newly-formed Horsham Pickleball Club, which plays in the Sussex league.
“It’s completely blown up,” says Neil. “I’ve got people asking for more courts.”
And although Neil was initially drawn to pickleball because he thought it would suit an older demographic, he has been pleasantly surprised to see the number of families and young people trying it out.
“We’re talking juniors all the way up to…I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess how old our oldest person is! We do get a real variety of people playing now, which is just great.”
The club is now fully stocked with equipment, and the next step will be to have the courts permanently marked out rather than requiring tape. If the school curriculum adopts pickleball at any point, that may be the first step towards getting purpose-built pickleball-only courts.
“I’d like to see eight courts being used for social pickleball, which is not out the realms of impossibility,” he says. “We’re looking to make that six quite shortly anyway, because demand is just so much.
“I’d like to see possibly tournaments taking place here, and it becoming more and more the hub of pickleball in West Sussex. The demand is definitely here.”
Once leisure facilities allow pickleball courts, it thrives.