Winter In Paradise Pickleball Wing Ding

On Saturday, Louann and the Pickleball Leage over at Kings Point in Sun City Center held their 5th Annual Winter In Paradise Pickleball Wingding. There was a pretty good group of "non Kings Point" players there, most of them from either here at TT Peace River, TT Orlando or Torrey Oaks. Bob and Kathy and Dennis and Fran drove over from Tanglewood, and a couple of the people that we play with on our home courts in Wesley Chapel also came down to play. There were even two guys who drove better than 2 1/2 hours from Melbourne.

Unlike the unpredictable weather at our Pickleball for Paws - Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day for pickleball. And as usual, Louann had the day very well organized.

Above the guys take to the courts for the men's doubles competition. There was both a competitive and recreational draw. John and Renee, Austin and Lewis and Bruce and Ron all played in the competitive games, while Bob and Dennis elected to play in the recreational draw.

More from the men's doubles - with Joe and Gene from Torrey Oaks, Bill and Dean, Stan and Buddy. Rich partnered up with Chris who is from our community in Wesley Chapel, and Jack partnered up with Ed who is a player from Kings Point.

The ladies draw was the same, with both a competitive and recreational draw. Jean teamed up with Jeniece, a pretty good player from Kings Point. Jeniece also came over and played in our Pickleball for Paws tournament a few days earlier. They along with Sally and Cis, Louann and Nadine and Karen and Delores all played in the competitive matches. Karen is also from our home community in Wesley Chapel. Don't have a picture of Diane and I ......we also played in the competitive draw. Kathy and Fran and Val all played in the recreational games. Charlotte had planned on making the trip from Orlando with Jack and Diane and Austin - but wasn't feeling well. She would have been teamed up with Val........Zachary - who is Karen's son, often playes with our group in Wesley Chapel. He's only 12 years old - but is a pretty good little player. Zachary team up with Val.............and they had a great time playing together...............and they did very well.

Most everyone had brought their chairs along, and took on the role of spectators between the games. There was a pretty good wait between games, so we got to catch up a little with Bob and Kathy Hughes and promised to make it down to Sebring for a Homers run.... We met some new players that had moved to Kings Point and promised to meet up with the two guys from Melbourn this summer when we go to our timeshare in Cocoa Beach.

The games started at 8:30 and we didn't finish until well after 4:00 in the afternoon. Everyone played four games in the doubles and three in the mixed doubles. At the end of the day, our group did very well...

Pictures above (starting top left): Dean and Bill - 2nd place men's competitive, Bruce and Ron - 3rd place, men's competitive, Karen and Chris- 2nd place, mixed competitive, Nadine and Louann 2nd place, ladies competitive, Val and Zachary- 3rd place recreational, Dean and me- 1st place mixed competitive and Rich and Nadine- third place mixed competitive.

We all had a great time and many of us will probably be back there the first week in April, when they will have finished putting in their fourth pickleball court!.

CLICK HERE to see all the pictures from the tournament.