Pickleball

Free Open Play at the new Topaz Park Pickleball courts:

The City of Victoria has not released details of how the new Topaz courts will work but I am guessing that the south 4 court section will be booked for lessons on 2 courts and free drop-in on the other 2 courts.  The North 7 court section will allow court bookings (maybe $8 per hour like the new Colwood courts) but allow free drop-in when the courts are not booked.  

Given this, I suggest that we have Social drop-in play on 2 or 3 of the 7 courts on the East side (bench with shade cover and enter at the main entrance through the skate park) and Competitive play on the West 4 or 5 courts (enter on the west side).  For the Competitive courts, I suggest that we mostly play skill level by court.  For example, 4 to 6 highest level players would play and mix on one court and then the next highest 4 to 6 players on another court.  We could expand this to mixing on 2 courts if skill levels are similar and we should allow groups like 5.0's to play on their own if they request. 

Pickleball Lessons:

My Topaz Park Pickleball lessons will be small group lessons (4 to 8 players) for $10 per hour per person during off peak hours or $12 per hour per person if a court booking is required during peak hours like evenings and weekends.  Please email me at darren.anderson1000@gmail.com to express your interest in pickleball lessons in April.  Include your name, gender and whether you are a Beginner, Novice or Low level intermediate.

Mini Moneyball Tournaments:

I will be organizing mini Moneyball tournaments starting with low registration fees of $10 for a 2 hour mini tournament.  Two booked Topaz courts with a maximum of 8 players (at similar skill levels).  Registration and play is individual with 7 round robin doubles games in the 2 hour period.  The player with the highest cumulative points wins $20, $10 for second place.  I plan to do a weekly mini tournaments with men one week and women the next (and maybe mixed) depending on interest.  I will have tight skill level brackets like 3.0 to 3.5 and 3.5 to 4.0 etc.  DUPR scores to be entered for all games to build your DUPR rating for indoor leagues and tournaments. If you are interested, please email me with your name, gender and level so I can schedule something in early April.

I encourage you to download the free smartphone app "PlayTime Scheduler" to see free open play sessions, pickleball lessons and mini tournaments at Topaz Park.