14 members of SPC took part in this year’s English OPEN pickleball tournament in Telford last week … with resounding success! The 2024 OPEN was the largest pickleball event to take place outside of North America, with a record number of almost 2,000 players from 42 countries participating. Everyone who took part enthused about what an amazing experience this was!

Every player had a positive experience, the friendship, camaraderie and the competitiveness were all there in abundance. Bob says “it [the tournament] was very well organised, the staff and everyone were very helpful and the atmosphere was overwhelmingly welcoming and friendly even amongst the competitors”.

All SPC players recorded at least one win during the tournament, with several coming tantalisingly close to the knockout stages. Our very own Bryan Saunders and Bob Nash came away with medals – Bryan and his partner won gold in one of the gender doubles events at 4.0 and Bob won silver in 3.0 mixed doubles 3.0. Special mentions to Dan Obrien and James Hurrell, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal, NIcky and Phil Spice, who were equal 2nd in their group and missed out on a place in the knockouts by points difference, Mark Jackson and Alyson Shephard, who both progressed to the quarter finals in the singles.

Check out some of the photos from this year below. Have you considered signing up for next year’s OPEN? We will post details on all our channels as and when information for sign up becomes available.