“Don’t be put off by the silly name,” says Pam Fleming to a loud chorus of pop-pop-pop as ping-pong-like paddles strike a plastic ball back and forth on what used to be a tennis court in Sydney’s north. “This game could really be the next big thing here.”
That name, and game, is pickleball. It was created in the US in 1965 and its name was a riff on the “pickleboat” – where left over rowers who did not make the cut for official teams would row together – to represent the game’s hodgepodge of ping pong, tennis and badminton.
