PICTURES: Pickleball tournament at new MUGA a first for Dornoch
Dornoch’s new £220,000 Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA), which opened in April, has hosted its first pickleball tournament.
A total of eight teams - four from Dornoch and four from Inverness, Munlochy and Drumnadrochit - battled it out on the pickleball courts.
The tournament, believed to be the first of its kind in the Highlands, started as a round robin with each team playing 10-minute matches. After the points were tallied up, the top four teams played in the semi-finals, with the winners advancing to the finals.
Overall winners were Luke Matheson and Julie Sachot, Inverness, who beat a home team of Adrian Allan and Sandy Jackson by 11:9. Third place went to Martin Croft and Pauline Graham from Drumnadrochit.
Luke Watson, chairperson of Dornoch Area Interest Company (DACIC), the organisation which provided and runs the MUGA, presented the top three teams with medals and also gold, silver and bronze mugs inscribed with “Dornoch Pickleball”.
Mr Watson said the Dornoch South facility had been “amazingly busy” since it opened, with an average of three paid bookings a day. The MUGA can be set up for tennis, pickleball or basketball, but pickleball, which is the fastest growing sport in the world and is a cross between tennis, badminton and table tennis, has proved particularly popular.
“Pickleball has gone mad, I never expected it to be so popular,” said Mr Watson. “The main reason is that it is so social. You can play singles but we all play doubles. It is just so much fun. We also get tourists using it when they are over here.”
A Lawn Tennis Association site, the MUGA operates a pay-as-you-play system - £6 an hour for tennis or pickleball and £12 an hour for a full court. Most days the facility is set up with one tennis court and one pickleball court - players cannot change the courts.
Social pickleball sessions are held on Wednesday evenings - the MUGA is floodlit - and Sunday mornings, with up to 20 people attending aged from 17-80, mostly from Dornoch but also from further afield.
Adult tennis coaching is offered on Thursday evenings and children’s coaching on Saturdays.
“We have just completed a five-week block of free sessions for 5-8 year olds and 9-14-year olds and we have another five-week block planned after half-term,” said Mr Watson.
“We work in partnership with Tain Tennis Club. We do the coaching here but the competitions are held at Tain as we do not want to take that away from the club.”
Mr Watson said the MUGA has been so successful that DACIC is now considering fundraising for an indoor facility.
“There is no High Life Highland facility in Dornoch so the MUGA is a great asset to the town and all members of the community are involved,” said Mr Watson.
“Everyone loves the fact that the MUGA is outdoors but I think the popularity of not only pickleball but also other sports actively shows that there is a public need for an indoor facility.”
For more information, visit Dornoch MUGA on Facebook; call 07376 488197 or email: muga@dacic.org.uk
