Dubbo Pickleballers have collected another medal; admittedly “only” silver, but still a great result for Brian Humphries and Greg King who combined to travel to Bathurst late February to compete in a regional tournament.

The event had visitors from far and wide including pickleballers from Port Stephens, Mudgee, and Orange; with gradings based on Upper Skill Level of ”Plus Three” (the big guns) and “Less Than Three” level, (the not-so-big guns), with an open-age category across the tournament. This meant that senior-aged player had to match the speed and energy of the younger ballers with guile and skill.

In the round robin format, Brian and Greg struggled a tad as this was the first tournament they had paired-up in. However, their results saw them finish in fourth spot, just hanging-on to grab a place in the semis.

In good news, however, Brian and Greg were improving in every game over their communication and control of the speed of the match.

In the semi-final where they were looking for a chance to compete for gold, they were up against a pairing from Port Stephens who had defeated them by a narrow two-point margin earlier.

Our local lads, however, showed that they learned something from the earlier encounter, winning the semi by a healthy seven-point margin. With their confidence up from that result, they looked to the gold medal match-up. This saw them up against a local pairing who had not only been undefeated throughout the earlier games but, with the open age category, offered a 70-year age aggregate advantage!

The scoring system for the gold meant that the winners needing to be first to 15 with a two-point margin with the points only to be earned when holding serving rights.

The game see sawed with both teams battling to gain the upper hand, until it reached a point where both teams were on 14 points needing two consecutive service points to claim the gold. The tense battle for the title had the score remain tied for six consecutive service breaks, until the local duo got the break through and claimed victory 16-14; a great effort from all.

Dubbos other representative, Neil Jordan found himself partnered with a Mudgee lad in his matches and, and whilst the early part saw them struggle to understand each other's game, they were able to win two , lose two, and find themselves just outside the semi-final points needed to progress to the play-offs.

As with Brian, this was Neil’s first time at a tournament and he also had to overcome having no experience with a partner that he had never met nor played with before. In this, it was an excellent effort from Neil and you can bet he will be a much-improved player from the experience

On the local front, following-on from a few weeks of rain and heat, it was Alwyn Edwards and Rueben Efoti who ruled the court with an unbeaten performance in the weekly Boss series — played strong, done good!