The Auckland 28-29 January 2021 Seniors Pickleball Tournament at the Panmure YMCA facility was a smashing success. 53 contestants participated in 44 teams. Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Doubles categories were played. Single games to 15 in a timed format meant that everyone remained reasonably relaxed and there was ample free court time for people to enjoy warmup and social play. 62 or so folks showed up for the Thursday evening Chinese banquet which was also a real hit.
A number of sub-60 year old local players came along to help out. How cool was that! During breaks they put on some informal exhibition matches that had many of us remembering when we could move around so fast and hit so hard.
Results:
Women’s Doubles:
Mixed Doubles:
Men’s Doubles:
Comment: If it looks like the women winners worked harder than the men, not just looking that way! Some of these men’s finalists only played in that category. Also, many of these medal winners showed up as winners at the previous Rotorua Tournament. These are evolving as the NZ seniors to beat.
The tournament had a few other winners, from the raffle draws held at the end:
Finally, we had the most photographed tournament I’ve yet witnessed. Goretti Sua and Sara Aly filled the Pickleball Auckland Central Facebook page with scads of live action photos. Sara Aly gets credit for all the photos above on this page. Men’s gold winner Chris Traill is also a professional photographer who gifted us with 100 spectacular photos that truly capture the essence of the tournament. They can be seen see here https://pac.org.nz/chris-traill-photographs/
Yours truly had a few shots that demonstrate you can still go airborne in your later years, and show some of the skills and talents we had at this wonderful tournament.
Regards, Jeff Parke, Tournament Director
