Our new arrangement with Heritage has hit a bit of a speed bump. Today, we got to see the newly-installed pickleball lines arranged by Heritage in it’s large gym. Although the gym was large enough to accommodate four courts side by side, the line installer instead chose an orientation of 2×2, back to back (see below). While that layout is used when converting a tennis court to shortened pickleball courts, it doesn’t work in a gym. The back-to-back area is quite small and creates not only a risk of players colliding but also means any missed or long ball ends up in the other court. What a disappointment!
Heritage is contacting the line company and will demand the courts be redrawn. Since the redo will be a multi-day process, it needs to be done when the gym isn’t in use. At the earliest, this would be done during Heritage’s “reading week” in February. In the meantime, our Club needs a contingency plan.
The current layout does allow two side by side courts to be safely used at the same time. Errant balls will be a pain but at least they won’t present a risk to the other court being used. Therefore, until this is resolved our Saturday sessions will be limited to 13 players only. The original intention of expanding to Saturdays was to offer competitive players a second day a week (after having lost Thursday evenings at Temple). So until further notice, Saturdays will be limited to competitive players only (13 had already signed up for this Saturday). Heritage has agreed to reduce our rent accordingly to make this viable. Adding Sunday mornings is an option and will depend on member feedback. Please respond to admin@cambridgepickleball.ca if you would like to have Sunday morning available from 9am-12pm.
For those that had registered for this coming Saturday and future sessions under the Recreational session, you will see a credit back to your account. As our club’s way of apologizing for the inconvenience beyond our control, a free session will be offered to those members that were anticipating playing this coming Saturday, January 10th. An email will be sent out if this impacts you.
Your patience and support is appreciated! If all goes according to plan, in about six weeks we should be back to being able to offer four courts on Saturdays. Fingers’ crossed!