Timaru pickleball players have been served up a spring-time treat as the first permanent outdoor free public courts in New Zealand opened at Caroline Bay.
Widely considered the world’s fastest-growing sport, pickleball combines elements of tennis, ping-pong, and badminton.
Compared to tennis, the sport is played with a plastic ball and paddle, on a smaller court, and with a lower net — making it less physically demanding and more accessible for players of all ages and skill levels.
The sport has been rapidly growing in Timaru over the last several years but play has been mostly limited to indoor action at Aorangi Stadium.
An idea to transform one of Caroline Bay’s concrete tennis courts into four pickleball courts came to fruition on Monday.
The idea came from pickleball player and project organiser Fred Fruisen, who said it took just 66 days from pitching the idea to Timaru District Mayor Nigel Bowen to officially opening the new courts.
‘‘We didn’t want money, just permission. We fundraised ourselves but we also had a lot of help.
‘‘The mayor chipped in with letting his street crew do the court lines, Todd Mudie Group dug all the holes for the poles for free and that was a really big job. Then, McCain [Foods] donated the steel poles for nets and since they did that I painted them to look like french fries with tomato sauce on them.
‘‘Raine and Horne [Real Estate] made a nice cash donation and a lot of people from our pickleball group also helped.
‘‘We painted the courts, and people pitched in a little money themselves or labour. It all just happened so fast, we had a very motivated group of wonderful, wonderful people.’’
For those worried about the loss of a tennis court at Caroline Bay, Timaru District councillor and Tennis South Canterbury general manager Peter Burt said the council would be putting a new tennis court in the current bike polo space once the lease was up, as it had been confirmed it would not be renewed.
Having outdoor courts would give the sport the opportunity to grow even bigger in Timaru, Mr Fruisen said.
‘‘We were playing over at the stadium, and we could only play between 10 and 12 on Mondays and Fridays, so they were dictating when we play. We wanted to be able to play whenever we want and the sport is meant to be played outdoors.
‘‘What’s going to happen now is everyone is going to hear the ball being hit because it makes a distinct sound and when they’re walking by they’ll see people playing and think ‘that looks like a lot of fun, I’m going to try that’.
‘‘It’s going to grow by 300, 400, 500% easy. I told the mayor that we’re going to need four more over there [the adjacent remaining tennis court].’’
He is originally from the United States and moved to Timaru from Auckland earlier this year.
A big part of the project was wanting to give something back to the city.
‘‘This is one of the least used areas of the park. You can see everything else is really well utilised. This wasn’t, we’re going to turn this into one of the most used because you’ll be able can come down here probably at any time during the day in a few months and find a game. It’ll be awesome.
‘‘It’s been a joy of an experience getting this project done, and it’s been a treat to see the community all come together and chip in. It’s been a really cool thing to have everything come together like this.’’
He said anyone wanting to learn more about the sport or give it a go was more than welcome to pop down to the new courts between 10am and noon on a Monday or Friday and give it a go.
‘‘Anyone in our group is glad to show someone how to play, we’ll loan you a bat and get you into it. Anybody who plays pickleball wants the game to grow, so just come on down, ask some questions and give it a try.’’
