English OPEN Newsletter Issue 2

Welcome to the second English OPEN player newsletter. Registration closed last night and we have 304 players registered! That is not far behind the 320 achieved by last month’s Bainbridge Cup & German Open – thank you all for registering. We plan to give you lots of games and plenty of opportunity to socialise and get to know each other. The registered players represent 17 different countries and have an age span from 14 to 83 years old, proving that pickleball is a game for all ages. This tournament is an age and skill event. The next newsletter will confirm the event brackets based on the registered players.
THE VENUE
The David Ross Sports Village is a £40m state-of-the-art, purpose built sports facility, opened in autumn 2016. Amongst a vast range of exceptional facilities, the Village is home to an ultra-versatile, impressive sports hall the size of 20 badminton courts (88.95m x 44.10m / 3845sq m). The Sports Village is named after David Ross, alumni of Nottingham University and Carphone Warehouse founder who donated more than £10m towards the building.
FINDING YOUR WAY TO THE DAVID ROSS SPORTS VILLAGE
The University of Nottingham have a great ‘Getting Here’ section on their website:
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/visitorinformation/mapsanddirections/universityparkcampus.aspWe have marked up the attached map of the university campus to show where the David Ross Sports Village and Orchard Hotel is located. We have found the easiest entrance to approach these building is via the West Entrance as the Orchard Hotel is signposted.
PARKING
Parking is available around campus at the University of Nottingham. It is FREE at the weekend but pay and display during the week. The first 2 hours are free but it costs £10 per day. Those who know that they will be parking on campus on Thursday or Friday have the option to request pre-paid parking at a rate of £5 per day. This MUST be communicated to Sam (sam@pickleballengland.org)by Thursday 8thAugust at the latest, stating how many days of pre-paid parking you would like to purchase. Payment can be made to the PayPal account (Karen@pickleballengland.org), which again must be made before 8thAugust.
Players who are staying at the Orchard Hotel will be able to park in their car park, which is a 2-minute walk to the David Ross Sports Village. Alternatives to parking on campus are using the tram (Nottingham is a tram city), using the bus (namely the 35/36) or using Uber.
THE CLUB HOUSE CAFÉ
Operated by Starbucks the Club House Café is open from 7am-10pm. Breakfast is served from 7.30-9.30am. Breakfast rolls from 7.30-11am. Lunch menu 12-2pm. Pizza menu 4-9pm. At the weekend they have an all-day breakfast option too!
PHYSIO
Charlotte Stowell, a qualified Sports Therapist will be on site for the whole weekend, providing massages to players at a cost of £10 for a 10-minute slot. Charlotte has worked for over 10 different organisations, including several football clubs, a National Netball tournament and Lacrosse Women’s World Cup, providing sports therapy.
TOURNAMENT BALL
The ball being used at the tournament is the JUGs white. This is the most common indoor ball being used in the UK and in our opinion, the best suited to the sprung surface at the University. We are really grateful that the UK Pickleball Shop (pickleball.co.uk) are our ball sponsor and are providing the balls we will be using during the tournament. We will put fresh balls out every morning, so be aware that the ball will be bouncier at the start of the day!
EVENT FORMAT
All players are guaranteed a minimum of four games in each event that they play in. This will be in the form of a round robin followed by a single elimination bracket. The round robin will be used to seed teams and not all teams from the round robin will progress to the single elimination bracket, so it is really important to do as well as you can in the round robin! Some categories have been combined where necessary to ensure that players each get the minimum number of games. The next newsletter will include information on the age/skill groupings and the teams you will be playing against!
PLAYING PARTNERS
Most players have found partners. We have around 20 men that are still need of a female partner for the Mixed Doubles. We are still accepting registration for that event from ladies. For those players without a partner, we plan to put on an additional men’s doubles event on the Sunday, so that everyone registered will get to play.
OFFICIAL PADDLE of the English OPEN
As you may have seen on social media, we are fortunate to be sponsored by one of the major paddle manufacturers, Paddletek. Paddletek create a varied range of paddles, one of which is the Tempest Wave. The Tempest Wave will be the official paddle of the 2019 English OPEN and you can get your hands on one at the tournament for a cut-price deal! The UK Pickleball Shop will be offering this paddle at a special tournament price of £84 – a saving of almost 30%! The Tempest Wave is one of the most popular paddles on the market, with a graphite surface for extra touch and spin and also enough ‘pop’ for the power you need!
UK PICKLEBALL SHOP POP UP SHOP!
Jane and Mike of the UK Pickleball Shop will be operating a pop up shop for players as well as playing in the tournament. The attached pdf tells you all about the Tempest Wave offer but also an extra sweet deal on a portable net, exclusive to tournament attendees. You can pre-order both to make sure you are not disappointed when the stock is gone! Jane is asking players to let her know ahead of time if there is a product from her store you want her to take with her because she can’t take everything to Nottingham. CLICK ON THE VISUAL BELOW to be taken to the full PDF which contains a link to her website.
WIFI at the Venue
There is Wi-Fi throughout the David Ross Sports Village which will be accessible to all players. The network will allow players to access the online software so that you are able to view your matches, court numbers and estimated times!
If you would like more details on how to connect to the Wi-Fi click here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/it-services/connect/wifi/visitors.aspx
Air Conditioning at the Venue
The warm temperatures we have been experiencing might make you wonder whether the venue has air conditioning. We have been told that whilst the sports hall is not air conditioned it does have some cooling capacities within the operational build of the facility to help manage temperature. We asked the question on the hottest day of the year and was advised that the hall was still at a very comfortable temperature!
Pickleball England AGM – Friday 23rd August
We will be holding the first AGM for Pickleball England in the Brailsford Suite at the Orchard Hotel from 6pm. All of the Pickleball England Directors will be attending the English OPEN so this was the perfect opportunity to be able to share a progress report and hear from registered members what they would like to see happening over the next 12 months. We expect the AGM to finish in time for attendees to go for dinner at 8pm.
WPF DRINKS RECEPTION – Saturday 24thAugust
The World Pickleball Federation are holding an informal drinks reception on Saturday evening at the Orchard Hotel from 7pm. Seymour Rifkind, the founding WPF President is attending the English OPEN and would love to meet players, answer any questions people may have about WPF and listen to players views on what needs to be done to help grow pickleball.
The reception starts at 6.30pm and is designed to be a pre-dinner event so will finish by 8pm.
POST TOURNAMENT DINNER – Sunday 25thAugust
The tournament dinner will be held at the Orchard Hotel Conference Centre on Sunday evening. A welcome drink will be served from 7pm and the food will be served at 7.30pm. We have included the menu below. If anyone hasn’t booked for the dinner and wants to join us, please email Sam@pickleballengland.org. Tickets are £25. The dinner will be followed by a disco, with music being provided by one of our own; DJ Peter Hitchman! Peter has worked in several bars and clubs in Leicester, providing DJ services to thousands of students on a weekly basis. Don’t worry, he knows that the music has got to work for all age groups and he has got some amazing things planned for the evening!
Dress is smart casual. Players that are not booked in for the dinner are welcome to come along to join in the disco. There will be a bar available for your refreshment needs.
DINNER MENU:
ANNOUNCING A NEW SPONSOR – The Happy Snack Company
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