Breckenridge Texan

By Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan

First Christian Church of Breckenridge will host a Pickleball Tournament on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 15, on the church’s pickleball court in downtown Breckenridge.

The community is invited to participate in the tournament, which is scheduled to begin at about 12:30 p.m., according to tournament organizer Diana Fambro.

“The church service will be from 10:30 to 11:30, and we’ll have hot dogs after church,” she said. “Then, we’ll organize the tournament bracket.”

There is no fee to participate, and anyone who wants to play in the tournament should be at the church by about noon, Fambro said. The tournament will be single elimination with two-person teams. Tournament participants can sign up as a team; or, one person can sign up to play and a team member will be assigned to them.

The court is located behind First Christian Church, on the corner of East Hullum Street and South Breckenridge Avenue, just west of the Clear Fork Bank drive-through. The court also is used for basketball games.

Participants can bring their own equipment or they can use the church’s pickleball equipment.

Pickleball was invented in 1965 by Joel Pritchard, then a Washington State Representative, and a couple of friends, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, according to USA Pickleball, the official U.S. pickleball governing body. They were looking for a game the entire family could play together and combined elements of badminton, tennis and ping pong.

The plastic pickleball has holes in it, and the paddle is described as being smaller than a tennis racket but bigger than a ping pong paddle. The court is smaller than a tennis court, and the nets are slightly lower than tennis nets.

For more details about pickleball, including all the rules and videos showing how to play, visit the USA Pickleball website (click here).

For more information about the upcoming First Christian Church Pickleball Tournament, send an email to Fambro at dianafambro@yahoo.com.