PICKLEBALL AND FRIENDSHIP

PICKLEBALL AND FRIENDSHIP by Dave Shepherd

There have been many comments regarding the postings in the blog during the past year and a half from all corners of Canada and the United States and of course from our family of Pickleball friends at the ARC in Abbotsford. We have pickleball friends in Florida, Arizona, California, Ontario, Greater Vancouver including South Surrey who enjoy reading our news, both regarding play, our tournament, and also the social aspect of our group. We have had many great comments about our social get together on Tuesday after pickleball. They also enjoy seeing some of us in pictures and videos.

We see how many times our blog is accessed on a daily basis and it peaks twice a week after blog postings. One point that was always mentioned in our feedback was the friendly image others have about us. We always have had a very friendly group of players, but recently this aspect of our relationship has had a bit of a change.

Recently we have had a problem with too many players and not enough courts which of course needed some sort of system so that all players had access to the courts in a fair and orderly fashion. As you know, and has been discussed in other postings, Carol from Chilliwack took the initiative and brought some systems which have been used elsewhere and tried them here, unfortunately with limited success. Last Tuesday's play was the day that created the most adverse comments from players. The people who make these comments are your fellow players, and they don't always have the same opinion as you have. Some of these comments are quite pointed, but they do reflect your friends opinion. Many of them want their comments noted but don't have a platform to do it.

Part of the function of writing for a blog is the same as reporting for a newspaper, you are only reporting the facts and quoting comments from others. You don't always report only "NICE STUFF". occasionally things are not quite so nice.

Most of the postings to the blog are made by Shirley Shepherd. As Shirley's husband I am very much aware of how much time and effort Shirley spends in making sure the blog reflects what's happening in our group, and on a daily basis she is continually promoting the fantastic game of pickleball. In the absence of Grant, she has been able to obtain 8 courts for play for Tuesday and Thursday starting in September, with co-operation from Sarah Morris. She has also been instrumental in having an additional evening spot made available for Tuesday evening from 8:00pm - 9:30pm also starting in September. Shirley has a true love of the game, and is always happy to try to help a new player and to make them feel welcome.

I was disappointed to receive a call suggesting that Shirley should change the content of her posting in case it offended someone. If they had read the entire posting they would have seen that the posting was not being offensive, but rather appreciative of effort. Fortunately, Shirley receives enough compliments on the blog and the encouragement from others inspire her to continue promoting the game of Pickleball that we all love at ARC.

Hopefully with the availability of additional courts we will be able to resume our normal friendly way of arranging games. On Thursday we had 23 players and 4 courts with no system, I think everyone was able to play as many games as they wanted.

Pickleball and social camaraderie is what we all enjoy, and sometimes we all have to play our part to make sure it is fair and enjoyable to all.