HAMPDEN — Thirty-six pickleball enthusiasts from Maine, New Hampshire and summer visitors from Florida, Missouri and South Carolina competed in the Firecracker Pickleball Scramblemania on Saturday, July 16, at the Armstrong Tennis Center.
The age of participants ranged from 12-year-old Ezra LeMole of Rockland, also a top tennis player, to 83-year-old Stuart Lohr, who summers in Cushing and winters in Salem, South Carolina.
In a scramble format, players are matched with partners of similar ability and play against other pairings in the division.
Players competed in eight timed games with a different appointed partner each game. Each game lasted 10 minutes — scoring continued until time was called rather than stopping at a fixed number of points, which in traditional scoring stops at 11 points. Each individual on a team received credit for the points the team scored during the game.
The player with the highest point total at the end of all rounds won.
Mark Goff and Susan Starbird, co-tournament directors, were thrilled by the response of the number of registrants for the tourney in their second attempt at this type of format. Their last tournament of this type was held in March with 37 participants.
Jim Hutchison of Waterville was the top male points earner with 91, while Jeff Madore of Cumberland placed second with 86.
In the female division, Jayne Davis of Hartland took home top honors with 85 points and Anne Powelson of Hampden finished second with 80.
Pickleball combines elements of tennis, ping-pong and badminton and is played on a hard-surfaced court that is 20 feet by 44 feet. The court fits within the single lines of one side of a tennis court where players hit plastic wiffle balls with paddles that are a little larger than a ping-pong paddle. Like in ping-pong, the scoring is done in single digits. Pickleball plays until the first player or team reaches 11 points.
Those seeking more information about pickleball in the Bangor area may stop by the Armstrong Tennis Center, 60 Mecaw Road in Hampden, call 207-942-4836 or visit usapa.org for other sites to play in Maine and the U.S.