Sam Anderson is working hard to bring more people into pickleball, which has already allowed him to travel around Europe after rising towards the top of the sport.

The 33-year-old financial consultant, who lives in Norwich, was first introduced to pickleball a year and a half ago by his partner, Jess Wilson, who was the British No.3 in the women’s game at the time.

Anderson has managed to progress his ability to a point that has allowed him to play in competitions in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain in recent months.

He has recently played at the Skechers English Open at the Telford International Centre, where he reached the quarter-finals of the 4.5 18+ mixed doubles, alongside Wilson, and the last 16 of the 4.0 18+ men’s singles while he also featured in the men’s doubles.

He also keeps himself very busy when it comes to growing pickleball in Norfolk, with Nottingham’s Anderson saying: “We ran Norwich Pickleball Club throughout 2023 and we grew it from about 60 members to about 300.

“We’d like to take credit for some of the work, but we’re also just grateful for the support because it was almost like a ‘build it and they will come’ concept.

“We offered beginner coaching, we offered taster sessions and we were finding more and more venues to play and offer sessions.

“The club existed already, but it was sort of floundering, because it was on a volunteer basis it needed some people to come in and give it some energy and organise it.”

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.

Players of all abilities and ages from Norwich Pickleball Club participated across the seven days of high-level competition, with plenty of them coming away from Telford with medals.

Anderson said: “It sort of feels the same way as last year because there’s the same number of people and the same number of courts, but this year it’s over seven or eight days, whereas before it was only over three.

“So, the scale of it has got bigger and there are more and more Europeans coming over as well, and the level [of play] is getting higher and higher.”

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