It didn’t take anywhere near 90 minutes to sell out a 90-minute pickleball tournament at the Fuller Lake pickleball courts.
Available spaces in Sunday’s event were snapped up quickly. When registration for the mixed doubles division opened on Wednesday, May 22 at 6 p.m., it was full by 6:02, with a waiting list.
There were also competitions for men’s doubles and women’s doubles teams and Fuller Lake Park was buzzing for nearly six hours straight.
Pickleball’s popularity clearly knows no bounds.
“This is a repeat of two similar tournaments we held last year, both of which proved to be extremely popular,” noted Vancouver Island Pickleball Association’s Ken Holman of Chemainus.
The 90-minute tournament differs from other tournaments in several ways, including: 24 competitors play continuously for 90 minutes regardless of how their team performs; teams are never eliminated from the competition; reporting of scores is not required; these events reliably wrap up in slightly more than 90 minutes every time; and participants never wait around to be called for games because every team plays continuously.
Women’s doubles went first followed by men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Results were as follows:
Women’s Doubles - Gold: Heather Hood (Victoria) & Gale Penner (Victoria); Silver: Mary Orme (Victoria) & Rea Casey (Victoria); Bronze: Jan Bergen (Victoria) & Lindy Arnold (Victoria).
Men’s Doubles - Gold: Neil Rich (Victoria) & Andy Daniel (Maple Bay); Silver: Thomas Rauber (Campbell River) & Rod Hamilton (Courtenay); Bronze: Scotty Davis (Victoria) & Peter Brix (Victoria).
Mixed Doubles - Gold: Gale Penner (Victoria) & Rob Turnbull (Victoria); Silver: Lissy Rauber (Campbell River) & Rod Hamilton (Courtenay); Bronze: Lindy Arnold (Victoria) & Bob Fish (Youbou).
The Vancouver Island Pickleball Championships are back at Fuller Lake Park this year after a one-year hiatus, running July 12-14.
