The City of Surrey has opened its first dedicated pickleball courts. Yay!

Located in the Greenaway Park in the 17900 block of 60th Avenue (immediately east of the racetrack), the 8 courts are available for play. I had the opportunity to join 19 other pickleball nuts on Saturday afternoon to play on the new courts. Fantastic!  

While the courts were wet at 1:30, by 2:30 they had, except for one small wet spot, dried out. And that wet spot was gone 1/2 hour later. So drying them up for play after a rain should be easy. The surface is great: non-slip, non-skip, even the lines. 

A few negatives:

• No inside the fence seating, and really no room to put any without interfering with play. Bring your chairs but, on busy days, expect to put them outside the fence. 
• No water. So bring lots. 
• The inside centre fence is just a bit too high off the ground. It’s possible for a ball to roll under the fence and end up in the other 4 courts, requiring either an around-the-fence-through-the-end-gate run, or players on the other courts having to interrupt their game to return the ball. 
• No lights. No after-dark play. 
• No sun protection - we’ll see how warm it gets in the summer. 
• No wind screens - but the courts are surrounded on 3 sides by trees. 

But who’s complaining!?  Not me. It’s just so nice to have dedicated courts with real nets (very little ball roll-over), a great court surface and decent court separation.  Now that we’ve seen and played on these, I can hardly wait for the courts in Crescent Park (late summer 2020) and our own in the South Surrey Athletic Park (probably 2021) to come online. Yay! Well done City of Surrey. 

Outgoing President’s Message – Ross Priebe

At the Surrey Pickleball Club; Annual General Meeting a new Board for the 2020 Season was elected.

I had chosen to step down from my role on the Board as I have functioned in this role for the past 4+ years.

A number of events and accomplishments have taken place in these past years and there is more to come in the years ahead on the pickleball courts.

I will remain an active member in the club as needs and roles are defined further.

I thank the new Board for taking on their respective positions as our club continues to develop and grow in areas of membership, mentorship and those elusive dedicated-permanent courts.

In addition, thanks to many of you who have been involved in encouraging and developing the club to where it is today.

And finally, a big thank-you to those of you who have served on any of the past Boards for our club.

Ross

Incoming President’s Message – Ken Nowlan

I would like to start off by thanking Ross Priebe, Dave Anderson, John Robertson, Tammy Mack, Sandy Anderson and Carman Ross, the Board for 2019, for their efforts guiding the Surrey Pickleball Club through 2019. I would especially like to thank Ross, Dave, John and Tammy for their tireless, multiple- year Board participation, leading and steering the club through its early years.

I am honoured to be one of the nine nominees elected to the incoming Board of the Surrey Pickleball Club for 2019/2020 at the September 18 Annual General Meeting. On behalf of us all, thank you to the club members for your confidence in the nine newly elected Board members.

Within a few days of the AGM the newly elected Board met to determine who would hold which roles on the Board. I am pleased to announce that these are the Board members and their roles for 2019/2020:

Officers:
President – Ken Nowlan
Vice President – Murray Boh
Treasurer – Paul Tucker
Secretary – Edie Doepker

Non-Officer Roles:
Member Relations – Gus Romanelli
Play Coordinator – Carman Ross
Training/Instruction Coordinator – Doug King
Ratings Coordinator – Gus Romanelli
Tournament Coordinator – Rick Vandusen
Volunteer Coordinator – Sandy Anderson