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Pickleball’s fun, but ‘stay out of the kitchen’

Sport keeps writer and fellow players on their toes.

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By John Bombatch, Staff Writer Updated 7:33 PM Saturday, June 27, 2009

MIDDLETOWN — “Oh, watch out! You need to stay out of the kitchen!” my partner, Linda Laymon shouted to me.

I just looked back in confusion. It was hot outside, but I was nowhere near a kitchen.

Laymon, a veteran Pickleball player from Surprise, Ariz., was enjoying some court time with me and more than 21 other Pickleball enthusiasts Friday, June 26, on the Stanley Volkens Courts at Lefferson Park.

She and several other players, including Middletown’s founding father Volkens, were showing me the ropes on how to play the game.

Pickleball is played on a badminton-sized court, with wooden paddles and a projectile similar to a whiffle ball. The net is roughly tennis-court height, but you can only charge the net if the ball bounces first in what the Middletown players refer to as “the kitchen,” a 7-foot zone in front of the net on either side.

Only the serving team can score a point, and the game is usually played to 11. Middletown’s Cheryl Wyatt, a recent gold, silver and bronze medalist at the June 13 Indiana Senior Games explained how tournaments sometimes go to a higher number. But I forget what that number was. I was still trying to figure out how to stay out of the kitchen.

In doubles, you get two tries at serving: one yourself and one by your partner. Control of serve goes the other way after the receiving team hits a winner after the second person’s serve.

I played three games in all, with the likes of Laymon, Wyatt, Middletown silver medalist tandem Robbie McClain and Kay Gallagher, Larry Chicovani and Martin Mathers and made friends with them, Rhea Fraley and Volkens.

Never won a single match, but Laymon and I came close. We were playing McClain and Gallagher and were making quite a rally. At one point we battled back from 10-2 to make it 10-9, and I had a chance to bash the whiffle ball home to tie the match.

The smash was beautiful, straight and true, but when I looked down, I quickly realized my mistake.

Once again, I burned my teammate by standing in the kitchen.

Pickleball is played on the Volkens Courts at 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and from 8 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

“Everyone’s invited to come out and play,” Volkens said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2851 or jbombatch@coxohio.com.

Stanley Volkens

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