Rhodri Oliver is all set for the Premier Pickleball League match weekend.
This year he’s representing The Pickleball Store – and this weekend they face off against his former team, the North London Storm.
“I am looking forward to playing my team from last year London Storm and seeing if we can ‘Bring The Rain’ when we play them,” he tells Pickleball 52.
“I didn’t play the first weekend but the highlights of the second weekend were defeating the unbeaten leaders R3 and moving us from sixth to second on the leader board. I did also do a great ATP defence in one match which is always very satisfying!”
By day a tax consultant, Rhodri started playing pickleball about four years ago – and fell in love with it almost instantly. And fortunately for the folk of west London, he also took it upon himself to start up a club – although he says it was so he “had people to play with, and now it takes up a large chunk of my time!”
And there are no split loyalties for him this weekend.
“The Pickleball Store team are great,” he says. “We have a good rapport between us and really enjoy supporting each other during the fixtures.”
He adds that they have “quite a wide range of ages and life experiences which makes it all the more fun when you are looking to all achieve the same aim of destroying the opposition.”
And of the League itself, he says: “I have been really impressed with how many of the players in PPL have improved significantly during the season so far. It is clear that genuine partnerships are being built and in many cases the team is becoming greater than the sum of its parts.”
