As the co-owner of Lemon Pickleball, Finchley’s Alex Minogue-Stone is playing a huge role in aiding the rapid growth of a racket sport he became hooked on two years ago.
The 22-year-old played tennis until his teenage years, but believed he did not have what it takes to progress into a career in the sport at time he had started to become aware of pickleball.
Frustrated at being unable to find many places to play locally, Minogue-Stone set up Lemon Pickleball along with business partner Ash Spencer and started their own sessions.
They have since attracted many people to their variety of pickleball groups, lessons and private coaching sessions, while Minogue-Stone himself has recently competed at the Skechers English Open at the Telford International Centre.
Minogue-Stone said: “We set it up just over a year ago, so when we came here last year, that was our first proper experience in what I would describe as senior sessions.
“We came here and I didn’t know it was this big, so that motivated us to mobilise a bit quicker.
“Initially, we just wanted to grow the sport, but obviously it’s a business – it’s not just a community thing, we are trying to make money, of course.
“But our main thing is we want to try and grow the sport and get it out to people, so initially what we did was run sessions, tasters and courses.
“We obviously did our IPTPA coaching stuff and then just posted fliers to as many houses as we could, spent loads of time on getting the website up and then once we had a critical number, it was more word of mouth.
“We hire venues at the moment, school sports halls in the main, and we’re in 13 locations, we run about 45 sessions a week and it’s taken over my life.”
Minogue-Stone reached the last 32 in the men’s singles at the English Open, while he also competed in the men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
The 2024 English Open was the largest pickleball event to take place outside of North America, with a record number of almost 2,000 players from 42 countries set to participate.
Over 30,000 people around the United Kingdom now play the sport and there are over 700 places in which to play, with pickleball displaying an exponential growth in recent years
Minogue-Stone said: “I think this is really cool. I think it’s amazing that this can be done in Europe, considering that it’s fairly new.
“I’m sure that if the Telford International Centre got bigger, they could still fill it.”
Pickleball England has announced a record number of players competing at this year’s English OPEN from the 8th-14th August at the Telford International Centre in the largest pickleball event taking place outside of the USA EVER – visit pickleballengland.org
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