19/08/2026
THE ENGLISH OPEN 2026 🥒🏆❤️
What. A. Week.
Six days. Thousands of games. 62 courts. New surfaces, new pairings, long days, medals, near misses, personal bests, plenty of laughs… and an incredible group of people representing East Kent pickleball at the English Open 2026 at the NEC in Birmingham.
And while there were certainly plenty of medals and fantastic performances to celebrate, for us, this week was about something much bigger.
It was about coming together.
People travelled from across East Kent to play, to watch, to support, to cheer, to coach, to celebrate and sometimes just to sit courtside for hours watching someone else battle it out.
And what made it even more special was that we weren’t just supporting people from our own club.
Players from different clubs and academies across the region came together to support East Kent pickleball as a whole.
Different clubs. Different teams. Different partners.
One pickleball community. ❤️
From the very first day, the support was incredible. Players were sitting watching matches, cheering each other on and celebrating each other’s successes. When someone walked off court after a tough battle, there was always someone there with a hug, a high five or a few words of encouragement.
And that’s what pickleball should be about.
🏆 THE RESULTS
There were some absolutely incredible achievements across the week.
🥇 Barry & Ian — Gold
🥇 Pat Way — Gold
🥈 Ian Cooke — Singles Silver in his first major singles event
🥉 Paul Sellar — Singles Bronze
🥇 Will & Thomas — Junior Doubles Gold
🥈 Harry & Sophie Speller — Junior Doubles Silver
🥇 Sophie Speller — Girls Singles Gold
And there were quarter-final and knockout-stage runs, incredibly tight groups, qualification by the smallest of margins and countless performances that deserved recognition.
A special mention to Heidi, who stepped in at very short notice to partner Laura and found herself in one of the tightest groups of the whole tournament. With four of six teams still able to qualify going into the final group game, they secured second place, then battled their way through the quarter-final to reach the semi-final — Heidi’s furthest run at the Open.
They ultimately finished 4th out of 24 teams, with Laura being a complete stranger when they first stepped onto court together.
Not a bad day’s work! 👏🔥
There were also players taking on new challenges — Kevin beginning his singles journey and already planning his return in 2027, players stepping up into 4.0 and 4.5 competition to test themselves against higher-level opponents, and Hilary & Sophie beginning their major tournament doubles journey with an impressive 3 wins from 5.
And then there were the hundreds of individual battles that don’t necessarily show up in a medal tally.
The players who just missed qualification.
The players who reached knockouts.
The players who played their first major tournament.
The players who pushed themselves into a level they hadn’t tried before.
The players who battled through another incredibly long day.
Every single one of you should be proud.
And a huge amount of credit has to go to everyone who took on Singles.
There is nowhere to hide on a singles court, and after already putting in long days of doubles, stepping onto a court on your own deserves enormous respect. 💪
❤️ BUT THE BEST PART?
The medals are fantastic.
The results are brilliant.
The improvement year on year is incredible.
But the thing we’ll probably remember most is everything that happened away from the scoreboard.
The laughs.
The meals out.
The drinks.
The ridiculous moments.
The stories.
The friendships.
The people cheering from the sidelines.
The hugs and high fives after a hard-fought win.
The support when things didn’t go your way.
The memories we made simply by being together and doing the thing that brought so many of us together in the first place.
This week showed just how strong pickleball is becoming across East Kent — and how much stronger we are when we support each other, regardless of which club shirt we’re wearing.
So to everyone who played, watched, travelled, supported, coached, cheered, photographed, encouraged and generally made the week what it was…
THANK YOU. ❤️
And to everyone who represented East Kent at the English Open 2026…
You did us proud.
Here’s to many more weeks like this one.
Different clubs. Different players. One East Kent pickleball family. 🥒❤️
