Students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and Newcastle University created a little piece of history when they played the UK’s first ever varsity pickleball match last weekend.
Skipper Ewan Fagan set up UCLan Pickleball Club in June 2023 and since then has seen over 100 students play the sport on the campus in Preston, with three sessions running every week.
“We have organised tournaments for our players throughout the year, but I had wanted to play other universities and was just waiting for others to create clubs,” Ewan told Pickleball 52. “I had heard about Bangor potentially having a new club but I thought that was it.”
Ewan connected with Sam Basford at an IPTPA coaching course and also got in contact with Riah Harris, who helped set up the club at Newcastle this year along with Aleks Frost.
“Originally we wanted to have the match in Preston, but due to Newcastle not having enough drivers I was happy to drive our team up to them. We hoped to take at least 10 of our players, but as it is exam season we managed five and made it work!”
“The tournament organised by Aleks and Riah was a lot of fun. Eleven players from Newcastle and our five played in a mix and match festival style format with everyone playing 10 games over three hours. There were individual rankings at the end, with players getting two points for a win and one point for a loss.”
The individual rankings saw Ewan come out on top undefeated, sitting atop the podium, with two north-eastern picklers making up the top three.
1st – Ewan Fagan*(UCLan), 2nd – Riah Harris (Newcastle), 3rd Adam Biggin (Newcastle). *undefeated
There was also an overall team score for each uni, collating the score of each team’s top five players. Newcastle won on this metric. “We realised this wasn’t the fairest way of doing it, which is food for thought for next time to do it differently,” said Ewan.
“In true student spirit, we also threw in a few awards like oldest player, who won a tin of beans, and Doughnut of the Day who won a packet of quavers!” Ewan added.
These awards may not take off in the adult world of pickling, but seem a great encapsulation of university sporting spirit.
Ewan concluded: “I am so glad we could make it happen, it was particularly important for me as I graduate next month and I wanted to make a lasting impact before I go.
“I am beyond grateful for Riah, Aleks and all the Newcastle team for organising this, as well as our UCLan players who made the long journey up. We cannot wait to welcome them for the away leg next year.
“I think the butterfly effect of this event is going to be incredible and it’s just a matter of time before every university has a pickleball club. The future of University Pickleball is so bright and I am super excited to organise more events that ‘connect people one Dink at a time’ through Dink+® Pickleball!”
