QUEBEC CITY – Centre Wellington residents Bryce Richardson and Tim Porter are pickleball golden boys after competing in the Canada 55+ Summer Games at the end of August.
“It was kind of a big moment, in a small way,” Richardson said of the experience.
He and Porter had qualified for the national event when they won silver at an Ontario Senior Games Association men’s doubles pickleball tournament in the spring.
They went to Quebec City for the games not knowing exactly what to expect, and they returned with gold medals.
“It was tough going – we had to play six matches in six hours,” Richardson said.
The Canada 55+ Games is a biennial event with sports that range from track and field to table tennis, golf, slo-pitch, and more.
Porter and Richardson were competing in the 65-plus category in men’s doubles pickleball recreation division.
Both men arrived at the sport through tennis, taking up pickleball in more recent years because it’s easier than tennis.
But Richardson said the tournament in Quebec – played at Laval University – was exhausting, with games played back-to-back in a round-robin format.
They won their first five matches and went on to play a team from Saskatchewan for the gold medal in a best-two-out-of-three series.
The Saskatchewan team won the first game, but Porter and Richardson came back to win the next two, with a score in the final game of 11-7.
“It was very tight and very hot and exhausting,” Richardson said of the competition.
While there were 17 different events in the games, Richardson and Porter were only there for a short time and didn’t get to see much of the other competitions.
But Richardson spoke highly of the experience.
“It’s fantastic competition, and camaraderie, and seeing people from across the county,” he said. “You see some pretty fit older folk.”
He credits some of his team’s success to some extra coaching. Looey Tremblay, who has competed at the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships, lives in the area and helped Richardson and Porter with their game.
“He coached us a bit before we went to Quebec City or we wouldn’t have won gold,” Richardson said.
Tremblay has been a vocal advocate for pickleball, and Richardson also put in a plug for the sport, saying its popularity is outpacing the availability of venues in which to play.
“It’s just absolutely explosive growth,” said Richardson. “There really is a giant need in Centre Wellington for some kind of facility.”
