Backed by a small community grant, a new pickleball club has grown into a 50-member force with growing numbers, league promotion and national ambitions
Just a year after its first taster session, Cheese and Pickle Pickleball Club has grown into a thriving community group with more than 50 members and ambitions that stretch well beyond North Dorset.
The club, based at Sturfit Leisure Centre in Sturminster Newton, now attracts between 25 and 30 players to its weekly sessions, has earned promotion to League Three and is preparing for its first appearance at the English Open later this year.
Its rapid growth follows support from Sturfit’s Community Fund, which was established to help local clubs and organisations develop new sport and leisure activities. The fund helped the club get off the ground by organising and promoting its first taster sessions, providing meeting space and covering the first month’s hall hire, insurance and equipment costs – a total investment of just £372.
That early support enabled organisers Steve Morgan and Jacquie Mitchelson to establish the club and introduce local people to one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. Pickleball combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis, with two or four players using solid paddles to hit a perforated plastic ball over a low net. It has become one of the fastest-growing and most accessible sports in the country.
Club members recently celebrated their first anniversary by inviting many of the businesses and organisations that have supported them over the past year, including Sturfit, Else Family Butchers, The Swan Inn, John Carrick Financial Wealth Management, Dike & Son, Vale Scaffolding, James Day Engineering, Proprint 2K and local boxer Ruby White.
A local sports grant fund
The pickleball club is one of several projects backed by Sturfit’s Community Fund, which has now raised more than £4,000 through community events including raffles, games nights, a Zumba Glow Party and gym instructor Hayley completing the London Marathon. The fund has also paid for specialist chair-based exercise training, enabling Age Concern North Dorset to expand its balance classes, and funded free inflatable fun days at the leisure centre that attract more than 100 local children and their families.
Sturfit gym manager Roger Teasdale says the fund is intended to remove some of the financial barriers that often prevent community activities from getting started, whether by helping launch new clubs, bringing specialist activities to the town or supporting local organisations.
The success of the pickleball club, which has grown from a handful of curious beginners into a flourishing local sports club in just 12 months, is one example of what can be achieved with a relatively small investment and a committed group of volunteers.
To try Pickleball for yourself, no special skill is required. Sturfit Leisure Centre, Honeymead Lane, Sturminster Newton, DT10 1EW
Sundays, 9:30am to 12:30pm, £6 per session
To find a club near you, see pickleballengland.org
The Dorset Life Community News section is sponsored by Wessex Internet
