The toilets closest to the outdoor pickleball courts at Virginia Acres Park are closed indefinitely for extensive renovations. As the project is expected to take a couple of months, the City plans to eventually provide porta potties. In the meantime, players can use the front entrance at Odell to access the restrooms located near Gyms 1 & 2. An official announcement by the City is expected soon.
Aiken Pickleball News
I'm sure most have noticed that the calendar on the website has been taking forever to load. Some of you have just now discovered there are two calendars on the website - Localendar and Google Calendar. What is the difference?
Localendar is generated from the Google calendar by an iCal feed. We do not type any entries into Localendar. When working properly it is easiest to read using a smartphone. When the Localendar site is busy (with calendars in addition to ours) it takes forever to load, sometimes as long as three minutes and has numerous duplicate entries.
Google calendar is the master calendar that we work from. It is generated by us from the monthly schedules we received from Odell Weeks, Smith-Hazel and Gregg Park. We use the entries on the Google calendar to update the Sign up Genius each week. When brought up on a computer or laptop it is easy to read when displaying one week at a time. Not so easy to read when using a smartphone, but still readable.
The good news is the Local Calendar is back to loading in a reasonable amount to time.
The outdoor courts at Virginia Acres Park (behind Odell Weeks) are open! There is some debris on the courts, so you might want to take a broom or blower if you plan to play there.
Gregg Park will reopen on Monday, October 14 with regular hours. Pickleball will go back to it's regular schedule starting on Tuesday!
Some 4.0 players joined our Saturday morning drop-in play. It was exciting when they battled each other. The balls that came my way made me play to the best of my ability, but I never got smashed at or felt out of place. Super fun! This is why pickleball is so popular. Thanks to everyone that made this happen.
Court 4 & 5 will be available for court reservations 845-11am on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting next Tuesday September 24th.
Smith-Hazel Activity Center located at 400 Kershaw St NE, will reopen for a 2-hour walk through from 5:30-7:30 pm on Sept. 25th. Pickleball will restart on September 30th - every Monday and Wednesday - court reservations 9-1030am and 1030-12pm - three indoor courts. You will be able to reserve a court using the same Sign up Genius you use for Odell. The membership card you use to access Odell Weeks will allow you access Smith-Hazel. For non members the daily fee is $2, same as at Odell.
Once again it seems necessary to remind everyone that pickleball is just a game. It is supposed to be fun - for everyone. Throwing paddles is unacceptable. Swearing is unacceptable. Telling beginners they are not good enough to play indoors is unacceptable. Arguing over line calls is unacceptable. We are all Ambassadors for the game of pickleball - act like it.
As for line calls -
Question 15 from the Aiken Pickleball Rules Quiz is one of the most missed questions.
15. If you and your partner are unsure whether the ball is in or out, what is the call?
a. The player nearest the ball makes the call.
b. The ball is called in.
c. The ball is called out
d. The point is replayed.
Select Read more below for the correct answer.
b. The ball is called in