Chris Beaumont got hooked on pickleball within 20 minutes of his first-ever session.
That was in April 2024 – and since then, he’s been on court almost every day, got World Pickleball magazine established, and opened up the Pure Pickleball venue with his business partner Colin Heath.
Now he’s stepping into the Premier Pickleball League as co-owner and manager of Team Pure Pickleball.
“I was able to convince Sam Basford to come on board as our head coach, which meant we immediately had a much better chance of doing very well in the draft and in the season itself, having got the best coach in the UK on board,” he says.
“We went into the draft fully prepared and absolutely delighted with the with the squad that we’ve put together. We have got a young, dynamic, hungry team, for sure.”
Captain Val Vladea brings experience (“a very good captain for us to have going into our first season,” says Chris). She’s joined by Jack MacGregor (“an absolute, hilariously talented, dynamic, exciting, chatty, personality-driven player”), James Lofthouse (“absolute showman”), Pete Hitchman (“very talented”), Gracie Hamilton (“so talented for somebody so young”) and Rachel McCrae (“she performed brilliantly in the English Nationals singles tournament recently”).
It’s no wonder that Chris describes the squad as “very ready” and is looking forward to seeing them on court together for the first time.
“We’ve got a bit of everything, but we’re really keen on just getting that team dynamic going through the season. We all feel as a group that pickleball or watching pickleball has come become a little bit samey over the last year, and we want to see more personality and entertainment value on court to make it easier for the people streaming it and the people broadcasting it to really create that atmosphere that makes pickleball stand out.”
In their maiden season, the Pure Pickleball Pythons are intrigued to know how they’ll measure up against established teams, and how their draft strategy will compare to other squads’ recruitment.
They’re also thrilled to be part of a competition that showcases all that’s great about the sport in the UK.
“You see how fast pickleball is growing commercially across the world at the moment,” says Chris, “not just talking about player participation, but there’s big franchise competitions appearing every week, every month, all over the world.
“It’s so important that we have a figurehead competition, which people from other countries look at as well and go, ‘Oh, that would be really cool to play in,’ as well as the up and coming players in the UK can look at it and go, ‘Yeah, I really want to be part of that as well.'”
