Pickleball Event on Richard Branson’s Necker Island | Thaddea Lock Interview | South East Pickleball League reaches final climax

Pickleball Event to be held on Richard Branson’s Necker Island

March 2024 will mark a week-long pickleball event, the Necker Island Pickleball Forum hosted, of course, on Richard Branson’s luxury island.

The event will feature the biggest names in Pickleball, celebrities who love pickleball, top coaches and pros.

There will be talks from leaders in Pickleball, clinics and of course the chance to play pickleball in Pro-Am & Round Robin tournaments.

To learn more about this event, click here.

South East Pickleball League reaches final climax

After 9 months and 9 rounds spanning 32 teams, a dramatic end to the second season of The South East Pickleball League (SEPL) came down to a dreambreaker.

Premier League teams, The London Pickleball Anacondas and the Surrey Hawk Downs faced off for the Season 2 title with the Anacondas securing the win 21-20.

The Hawks took a big lead into the dream breaker and seemed to be heading for victory before the Anacondas fought back hard to take the title by just one point.

The London Pickleball Dragons who dominated the final round of the season in October, being the only team in the Premier division to win more games than they lost, had to settle for 3rd place.

Congratulations to all teams that participated in finals day!

What is the South East Pickleball League?

SEPL is an exciting season format made up of 8 divisions (Premier and then divisions 1-7) containing 4 teams with promotion and relegation prospects at the end of each round. Finish top of your league after a round? Move up one division. Finish bottom of your league after a round? Move down one division.

Each round is played as an MLP English Style event with each team playing gender doubles, and mixed doubles twice. If the teams have the same score after these matches have concluded then it goes to a singles dreambreaker.

Come the end of the season, the 8 teams in the top 2 divisions qualify for the finals.

This league structure seems to be a good indicator of the team quality with all medalists coming from the Premier division on finals day.

To learn more about SEPL, click here.

Find and Promote Pickleball Events!

Upcoming Tournaments & Festivals

Interested in participating in or promoting a pickleball event?

• Search Events by location

• Search Events by date

• Filter Events by Tournament or Festival

• Get directions and distances to events

• See which events are coming up next

• And promote your own events for free!

Visit the Pickled Events website here.

MLP and PPA 2024 Tour Schedule Released

The Major League Pickleball (MLP) and the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) have released their first joint schedule following their merger in September.

The schedule includes 34 combined and one-off events spanning 25 US cities.

Both the PPA and MLP will finish the year with a season-ending championship, the climax of all the team’s and players’ results throughout the year.

PPA Schedule

• The PPA tournament structure will include grand slams, cups, and opens to help differentiate the events and give greater grandiose to some events. Slams will be worth up to 2000 ranking points, cups 1500, and opens 1000

• All ranking points will qualify players for the PPA Tour Finals in December 2024 at Sam Clemente, California

• Every PPA stop will include amateur divisions across all ages and skills so that amateur players can enjoy the experience of playing on the same courts as the pros

MLP Schedule

• The 2024 MLP regular season schedule will include 15 events

• There will be 24 MLP teams split into six divisions of 4 teams each much like other American sports such as the NFL

• Sadly it seems the owners have won out and there are no longer plans for promotion and relegation-based leagues

• Teams will play 40 games over a season, playing every other team at least once

• Teams in the same division will play each other two or three times

• There will be a two-week-long MLP playoffs at the end of the season

This is how the schedule shapes up:

For more details, check out the PPA Tour website here.

Life at the top of UK Pickleball with Thaddea Lock

In this episode, I speak with Thaddea Lock, the UK's number 1 woman's pickleball player. We discuss:

• Her background and how she got into Pickleball. It's probably not how you think!

• Thaddea's medal success at the Nationals

• Thaddea's recent trip to America to play the APP

• What a week looks like as a pro pickleball player

• The work she is doing in pickleball today

• Events she planning on attending in the coming months

Thaddea is a great ambassador for the sport and really enthusiastic about pickleball which makes for a great episode. Enjoy!

Paddle Spotlight

Diadem Team Pickleball Paddle

This budget paddle is a great choice for players just getting into pickleball, or for those looking for a cheaper option, and comes in 4 bright colours. It has a lightweight design and comes in at 14mm thick.

Use coupon NEWS10 for a 10% discount on your first purchase at the Pickleball Addiction Shop.

In the News

Newsletter Feedback