MLP English Style was FUN!
All the teams did their best to win, there were LOTS of very close matches. In the morning’s round robin there were two groups, which means there were 6 matches in each group and amazingly 4 of the matches in each group went to dream breakers. So total of 12 matches and 8 dream breaker games in the morning.
The top two teams went through to Semi-Finals with Roehampton beating Scantastics 3-1 and Franklin Family beating Team 305 3-1.
In the Bronze medal play off, there was another dream breaker with Scantastics victorious.
In the Gold medal final, Franklin won the Women’s Doubles and Roehampton won the Men’s Doubles, which was a reversal of how it went when they met each other in the Round Robin. Then Roehampton won the Mixed Doubles 19+ which meant that Franklin Family needed to win the Mixed Doubles 50+ to force another Dreambreaker, which is exactly what happened! Franklin Family lost the toss and named their player order: Thaddea, Jamie, Chris, Karen. Louis decided that he would set up a battle of the sexes between himself and Thaddea, so played himself, Mark, Rachel and Anty. It was a REALLY close game with the lead being taken by both teams several times along the way. Thaddea managed to take 4 points off Louis, Rachel took 4 points off Chris. In the end the youngest player in the event, Jamie Basford, hit the winning ball for Franklin Family to win 25-23.
During the event, the team sponsors represented by Jared Franklin and Aaron Stahl watched every game played by their team with smiles on their faces throughout but their joy when their team were victorious was pure. They proudly received the ‘Medhurst Cup’, named after Ian Medhurst who sadly died a few years ago. Ian was a father figure to many in pickleball and epitomised fair play, fun and competition. He was the first Team Europe captain for the Bainbridge Cup.
The Franklin Family team players proudly received their trophies and prize money. £500 for each player is nothing compared to the original MLP but the players were all pleased to receive it. Roehampton Club players received £200 each and Scantastics won £100 each.
In addition to the prize money we were also able to make a £1,000 donation to ‘Boot Out Breast Cancer’ a local charity focussed on providing equipment to local hospitals to help earlier diagnosis.
Franklin Family
Roehampton Club
Scantastics
Team 305
UK Pickleball Shop - Let's Play
Drop Shot
Newman Rose
Zcebra
What is MLP?
Inspired by Major League Baseball MLP was introduced in 2021 at Dreamland, Dripping Springs, Texas. The founder of Dreamland, Steve Kuhn is also the founder of MLP and DUPR.
MLP is an innovative pickleball format involving professional players of mixed genders competing as a team against other teams. Team matches are composed of four games (women’s doubles, men’s doubles and two mixed doubles) with a unique Trademarked Dreambreaker singles tiebreaker.
MLP English Style, has slight modifications:
*Thaddea Lock and Faye Plummer could not make the weekend but since they are top 2 in the country were included in the snake draft.
MLP English Style at the 2022 English Nationals
After the success of the MLP English Style at the 2022 English OPEN where we had 3 teams, we have decided to repeat with more teams at the 2022 English Nationals.
We have secured sponsorship for 8 Teams of 4 players which enables us to provide prize money. £500 each player for 1st Place, £200 each player for 2nd Place and £100 each player for 3rd Place.
We will also be making a significant donation to a local charity. An announcement about the charity will be made just prior to the English Nationals.
Meet our Team Sponsors:
305 are a sports clothing and equipment brand that started in 2011. We have made our name in the squash world sponsoring some big names including National and World Champions. A trusted supplier of team and event clothing as well working with elite players. Now we find ourselves excited about working within the Pickleball community to help grow the game!
Drop Shot UK are one of the leading UK brands in all things pickleball, padel and beach tennis. They have a fantastic range of trainers, paddles, bags and clothing and are great supporters of pickleballEngland events. They are the sponsor for the Mixed Doubles events and will be providing all Mixed Doubles Gold Medallists with a fantastic prize! Toby Bawden who is the director of Drop Shot UK will have a vendor area at the event so please stop by and have a chat with him
Founded by Irving Franklin in 1946, Franklin Sports is a Stoughton, Massachusetts-based sporting goods brand that manufactures and sells over 10,000 products across many different categories. Franklin is a multigenerational, family-owned business run by Adam Franklin, who succeeded his father, Larry, as president in 2019. Franklin’s rich history and trusted reputation as a quality sporting goods brand – from recreational sports all the way up to the professional level – has made it one of the perennial leaders in the industry. Celebrating its 75thyear in business, Franklin continues to honor its tradition of providing athletes of all levels with excellent value across its full product collection, while also supporting various professional league’s growth initiatives and investing in popular emerging sports like pickleball.
Newman Rose are a new breed of Property Developer based in the midlands, specialising in building luxury homes and creating amazing spaces around the UK. We also educate and mentor developers to help them either start their property development journey, or to scale their existing development business. Proud to have created the biggest and best network of Property Developers in the UK.
Roehampton Club is London’s premier multi-sports, exclusive members’ club, offering an impressive range of sporting facilities including; a beautifully presented, award-winning 18-hole golf course, 28 tennis courts with ten fabulous grass courts, six heated, glass-backed squash courts, two padel tennis courts, four international standard croquet lawns (two floodlit), indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a gym, table tennis, fitness studio, physiotherapy and beauty clinic, crèche, dedicated bridge and snooker rooms and an Art Studio. Annual competitions, Kids Camps and coaching for adults and Juniors offers everything at the Club for Members to enjoy and improve their sport. A range of social scene events taking place throughout each year compliments the sporting programme and the sociable Club Café, Members Bar and Juice Bar offer a range of delicious meals and healthy snacks created with our passionate Executive Chef and his experienced team.
Here at Scan we’ve spent over 30 years focusing on just three things – technology, people, and how we bring them together. Whatever your passion, be it PC gaming, professional graphics, video editing, music production, high performance compute or artificial intelligence – we have a team of specialists ready and waiting to help you find exactly what you need, even if it’s just some good friendly advice. Our family of nearly 400 teammates live and breathe our 3XS philosophy of providing customers with the best Specification, Service and Satisfaction, which is reflected by the hundreds of media and industry awards Scan has won, and by more than 30,000 positive reviews on Trustpilot.
Scan Computers retail to the public and have a retail showroom/shop down the road from Bolton Arena for anyone interested in visiting.
UK Pickleball Shop (UKPS) is your one stop shop for all things pickleball. Their aim is to provide players here with access to the same top-quality equipment available to players in the US. They offer one hundred different paddle models from top manufacturers starting from as little as £29 along with a fantastic range of indoor and outdoor balls, nets, bags, and other accessories. UKPS is Pickleball England’s preferred partner (and the preferred partner of Pickleball France), and is the preferred supplier for David Lloyd Clubs, other leisure centres, local authorities, schools, and universities. Since launching in January 2015 UKPS has been instrumental in helping grow pickleball across the UK with most clubs/groups in the UK using their club sets to get started. They offer free advice so if you need help choosing your first paddle or are looking to upgrade to help improve your game get it touch: www.pickleball.co.uk
Zcebra is the first exclusive Pickleball brand in Europe. Born in a small town in Madrid in 2020, through hard work and passion we are already a reference in Europe and we are expanding to other continents. We develop our products in Spain. Our philosophy is to combine the best material, the most modern and high quality, with great designs and a unique image. Customer service is fundamental, it is direct, fast and efficient. Many players are already with us, competing and winning tournaments all over Europe, being part of our family. We fell in love with this sport, and we want to take our essence to every corner, to every fan, to every court. We will keep working hard to bring Pickleball where it deserves and grow with it as a brand, try us!
Meet the Teams:
We held a Team Draft Call on 5th October during which Team Owners/Captains chose their players from each of 4 categories. 19+ Male, 19+ Female, 50+ Male and 50+ Female. You can view the call here if you are interested. Bonita Baker #2 in the 50+ Women’s pickle pulled out of MLP on 12th October. She will be replaced by Lynn Jacobs on Team Drop Shot.
Snake Draft Picks
27th October, 2022 is MLP English Style Day at Bolton Arena
4 courts will be used for the MLP English Style competition on 27th October. There will be plenty of seating to watch play, so please come along and cheer on your favourite team. There will also be up to 16 other courts available for recreational play by English Nationals registered players.
The competition itself will comprise a round robin in the morning. The top 2 teams go through to the Semi Final. The winners go through to the Final and the losers of the Semi Final play for Bronze.
The competition should be exciting because the players are playing for not just bragging rights but prize money too. Gold winners each get £500 per player; Silver winners each get £200 per player; Bronze winners each get £100 per player. There will be trophies for the winners and a Trophy for the Team Owners too.
