By Matt Wright
For Fiona Edwards, having the largest pickleball tournament outside of the United States take place in her home county is a real source of pride.
Not least because the 49-year-old is the founder of Pickleball Central UK, which was formed last year and now operates in five locations across the West Midlands.
Edwards was first introduced to pickleball – a sport which is growing exponentially around the world – while on holiday in Devon in 2021 and quickly set up a group once she returned to her hometown.
Now fully immersed, several of her registered players, as well as herself, were part of the English Open at Telford International Centre where nearly 2,000 participated across seven days of high competition from August 8-14.
Edwards said: “It’s amazing, and for it to be so close to where my group is in Shrewsbury, which is 20 minutes away.
“I’ve had a lot of my members play this week and it’s been great to watch them.
“I came to the English Open last year and this time it’s a lot more improved, they’ve got a lot more facilities in, the Battle of the Paddles was really good, so there were a lot of extra nice new things.
“The UK is probably leading the growth spurt [of pickleball] and then probably Australia behind us, and Spain is coming up as well, so a lot of countries are getting more into pickleball.”
Edwards competed in the women’s 4.0 over-45s competitions at Telford, with her run in the singles tournament taking her all the way to a gold medal triumph.
The growth of pickleball is reflected in the fact that players from 42 different counties participated among the record numbers that attended the event.
There are now over 30,000 people in the UK who play, while pickleball England have reported a 41 per cent increase in member registrations since the end of 2023.
When Edwards set up Shrewsbury Pickleball, she was having to approach people to get them into the sport, but now they come to her when it comes to finding a club near Shrewsbury, Telford, Birmingham, Wolverhampton or Market Drayton.
“A lot of the enquiries I get are just people who Google pickleball and my website comes up, pickleballcentraluk.com, and I just get enquiries from that because they’re looking for pickleball,” Edwards said.
“I played it on holiday in Devon and really liked it and then brought it back to Shropshire when no-one really played here.
“I introduced it to my friends and just grew a group and made a business from it.”
Pickleball England has announced a record number of players competing at this year’s English OPEN from the 8th-14th August at the Telford International Centre in the largest pickleball event taking place outside of the USA EVER – visit pickleballengland.org