Dinkfest a huge Success

The Cold Lake Energy Centre was host to the Lakeland’s first ever Dinkfest on Sunday. 16 Lakeland teams competed in the amateur Pickleball tournament. Pickleball Canada Ambassador, Rob Barrett, says the event was a huge success and they were able to accommodate so many teams by shortening the game into a “dink” format.

“The tournament was a little unusual from the ‘normal’ game of pickleball as all play was in the non volley zone which is the area 7′ on each side of the net,” Barrett explains, dinking is a term used in pickleball for the short and soft shots which take place in the non volley zone. “This was good practice for the players to improve their skill in this area of the game as it is probably the most important fundamental skill involved.”

“Teams where arbitrary chosen into two pools, the Durafast and  Onyx, and played in a round robin format which saw each team play 7 games with the top 2 teams in each pool advancing.” There were teams from all over the Lakeland participating; including Bonnyville, St. Paul and Cold Lake, says Barrett. “After having to utilize a tie breaker system to determine the 2nd place team from the Onyx pool the playoffs were set.”

The overall champions where Gaye Harris and Reg Hamel from Cold Lake who took home a gift card from the Sawmill restaurant.  2nd place went to Bill Hall and Bob Marcyniuk from St. Paul who received the Players Lounge gift card.  3rd place went to the duo of Clint Cook and Randy Miese who received some beverages from Sobeys Liquor Store and the Lakeland Grill gift card went to the 4th place team of Rod and Lil Ayres from St. Paul.  The team of Yolande Hovelcamp and Jean Formanek took home the title of hardest working team and received some refreshments from Solo Liquor for their efforts.  The door prize from Home Hardware Bonnyville went to Roger Jackson of Cold Lake.