Aiken Pickleball News

New Membership Rates at Gregg Park Civic Center

The membership rates for the Gregg Park Civic Center will increase effective January 1, 2020, and the age cut-off for the senior membership will increase from 62 to 65 years. All seniors registered before January 1, 2020 will be grandfathered in with the current lifetime fee.

Dear Gregg Park Members and Guests,

Thank you for choosing Gregg Park Civic Center. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you! We are changing our fee structure to better reflect the value we provide to our customers. We are changing membership fees to a single, more inclusive fee. Group fitness and the weight room will be included in the membership price. We are removing the in/out of boundary fees and will now be charging the same fee regardless of address. Depending on your current membership, you may see an increase or decrease in the overall yearly fee. Below you will find an updated fee schedule which will take effect January 1, 2020. The fees that are changing are listed below. Any current fees not listed will remain the same.

Any memberships purchased before Jan. 1, 2020 will be purchased at the current fee structure and will be good 1 year from the date of purchase.

If you have any questions, please contact GPCC at 803-663-7552.

Third Court at First Presbyterian Church

Because of renewed interest in evening play at First Presbyterian Church, the third court has been made playable again thanks to a lot of hard work by Mo Garcia, Jim Kabel, Ron Nelson, and Dick Keeler.

Photo below shows Mo and Jim putting down the new lines. Thanks guys!

New Senior Membership Rate for Non-City Residents

The annual recreation membership fee for non-city residents of Aiken has a new category - Senior (50+). Annual rate is $50, which expires one year from date of purchase.

Cost for non-city residents Individual ($75) and Family ($125) have not changed.

A special thanks . . .

To all the folks that made the Raffle and our Social on September 27th such a success: To Stephanie Wolfe for doing the raffle and making that beautiful basket display; to Mo Garcia again for providing the generous donation; to Bebe Murphy and Pat Smith for the decorations that turned a drab meeting room into a social event; to everyone that brought a dish to make it a real feast; and Barbara Burns our Social Activities Coordinator for bringing it all together. Special thanks to all of you.

Two separate notes -

1) Dianne Floyd loves her new paddle;

2) The raffle took in $300 with all proceeds going to support Aiken Pickleball.

New Nets at Odell

In case you haven’t noticed, we now have new nets at Odell Weeks. And if you haven’t noticed you obviously haven’t tried to put one up. Being brand new, they are a little tight but hopefully they will get easier to put up as the nets stretch out. The good news is that only one rod is different – it’s male at both ends. Start with that one and just keep going as all the other rods are the same length. Don’t forget the center brace.

There is one slight change: the center net pole goes on one side of the center brace frame and the net goes on the other. It’s not a big problem world if you have it backwards as it will still work; it is just designed that way. Hint - after you get the frame together, try putting the net’s center pole in first and go from there. If you are still having problems, don’t hesitate to ask someone for help.

And if you happen to discover a net tape that is broken, please roll up the net and take it to the front desk to be repaired. In lieu of using duct tape as a quick fix, the nets are actually repaired by replacing the broken tape and then hand stitched.

Houndslake Pickleball Grand Opening Huge Success

A great time was had by all at the grand opening of Houndslake's new pickleball courts. Over 70 people attend. Thanks for all the Aiken Pickleball players who volunteered their time to make this a great event. Click here to see Facebook article and photos of the new courts in action.

Ask the Pickleball Refs by David Hoel

During our annual Palmetto Doubles tournaments our referees always run into some interesting rule questions and our tournament in September was no exception. We thought we’d pass on some of the more unusual issues for everyone to learn from.

Below is an example:

SITUATION: During a non-refereed doubles match, Player #1 on Team A struck a volley from outside the non-volley zone (commonly called “the kitchen”). Player #2 on Team A tried to hit the same volley but missed. After Player #1 struck the ball, his paddle hit Player #2’s paddle, knocking it out of Player #2’s hand and it landed in the non-volley zone. Team B claimed Player #2’s paddle constituted a non-volley zone fault because Player #1 had contacted Player #2 in the act of volleying.

QUESTION: Under USAPA Rules, was Team B’s claim of a non-volley zone fault valid?

ANSWER: Yes. Team B obviously knows the momentum rule or has been reading the “Ask the Pickleball Refs” Facebook page where this exact scenario has been discussed several times. USAPA Rule 9.B governs. If it’s part of the volley momentum, the point at which Player #1 contacts Player #2, the two become one so it’s no different than if Player #1s paddle fell into the non-volley zone.

Houndslake Country Club - The pickleball courts are finished!

A fantastic job on refurbishing some tennis courts to pickleball at Houndslake. You can try them out this week at no cost. We still need five more players for the Houndslake demo on Saturday October 5th. Please sign up at the sign up list for "Houndsake Volunteers" or contact Chuck Buchanan. We need to show them some pickleball enthusiasm!!! The time will be from 3:35 to 6:00 pm. Click here to see the finished results. Absolutly beautiful!

The new pickleball courts are located at the old tennis facility on Houndslake Drive, between Pine Log Rd and Hitchcock Parkway. Plans are to add three additional courts if there is sufficient play. Photo below is of the Pickleball Clubhouse at Houndslake Country Club taken during the contruction phase of the first three courts.

Raffle at September 27th Social

Dianne Floyd won the raffle drawing at our September Social. The prize included a certificate for a 60-minute pickleball lesson from Mo Garcia, a Pro-Lite SuperNova, Black Diamond Pro, Graphite performance paddle supplied by Simone Jardim World Champion, one tin of Onix outdoor balls (3pcs), and a paddle cover – a total value of over $200.00!

The prize is courtesy of Mo Power Sport LLC. The raffle took in $290 and all proceeds go to support Aiken Pickleball. Thank you Mo for your generous donation, and congratulations to Dianne for winning a great prize.

Clarification of Local Rule

The recent tournament enabled us to apply the new "Local Rule" against crossing a court divider during play. The rule was quite effective and we received many constructive comments. With that experience, we've added some clarifying language as follows:

A player crossing a court divider is a fault.

Includes the imaginary line from divider to wall
Regardless of whether the adjacent court is occupied
Even if the ball is dead before momentum causes the player to cross divider (same as a kitchen fault)
Does not apply to merely reaching over a divider,
nor safely retrieving a ball after a point has ended