Sue Harris attended the very first Tournival on 14th January and wrote the article below. The event was such a success that the date has already been set for next year – 20th January 2024 – Save the date!
PickleballENGLAND would like to thank the organisers for the very kind donation of £527 from the proceeds of the event. We will discuss with them what type of initiatives they would like their donation to go towards.
Sue Harris reviews this innovative event:
The Hertfordshire pickleball team, under the stewardship of David and Pam Stoten, once again staged a memorable competitive event on Saturday 14 January, 2023.
144 players descended on the Hatfied University Sports Village to take part in this novel format.
A tournament but not quite as we know it!
So, it offered competitive games in distinct skills groups and there were medals for those with the best results. Unlike other tournaments, however, you did not select your partner but rather were paired up with different partners.
A festival but not quite as we know it!
It was an opportunity for lots of enthusiastic pickleballers from across the county and as far afield as Ireland to come and play games against people they might not normally play with or against.
And so was created the new word Tournival.
Some statistics
144 players
360 competitive games were played.
4 skill groups – 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0
Format:
All participants played 5 mixed rounds and 5 gender rounds. Although the timetable looked challenging, Pam Stoten made sure everything ran exactly on time with the aid of a rather loud air horn!!
Thanks go to Kath Burgess for stepping in as a last minute replacement for a man in the 2.5 bracket and well done for taking Silver.
All in all, a very successful event and a format which can certainly be used in the future.
Thank you to all the organisers and volunteers for creating such a well organised and fun day.
A short video can be viewed:-
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