Ian Brown discovers the pickleball scene on Anguilla, one of the Caribbean’s last unspoiled havens
Let’s begin our investigation of luxury resorts and pickleball and their respective effects on the human soul with a few words about pickleball. Pickleball was invented in 1965 in Washington State when someone forgot to bring along the equipment for a children’s game of badminton. Today it’s the fastest growing sport on Earth. Some 38 million North Americans tried it last year. Major League Pickleball is owned by the likes of Tom Brady and LeBron James. Chris Evert is a fan.
Let me say this about the luxury villas we stayed in while I hunted for a game of pickleball: They are as enticing as they are infantilizing.we occupied, Villa Kishti on Black Garden Bay, is the private residence of Suresh Bhalla, a retired Canadian banker. The villa hangs like a beautiful cave over the less populated north shore of the island.
“I have become Resort Woman,” my wife said to me at one especially plush Eden, where she had spent the day reading on a freshly sheeted chaise lounge under a vast umbrella, being waited on by a beach boy who brought her fresh towels and ice-chilled bottles of water and free snacks and anything else she desired. “And the transition was instantaneous.
Anguilla is teetering between the upscale and the local. Its elected government – currently the Anguilla Progressive Movement, led by Dr. Ellis Webster, a former ear, nose and throat doctor – is trying to walk the tricky path between the two. It has been lucky of late in that regard. Anguilla’s internet domain is dot “ai”, an address so much in demand the government made US$32-million last year charging for its use.
Best of all, she invited me to Anguilla’s only regular private pickleball game. “It’s in Seafeathers,” she said, referring to a neighbourhood at the other end of the island. “At Nurse Dana’s.” That is all the address you need on tiny Anguilla. There was a lot of chirping backchat, especially from the women. Bob always asks Dana before he invites a newcomer to the locals’ Seafeathers game; Dana keeps telling him he doesn’t need to ask. “Anybody can come and play,” she told me the evening I visited. “We want to support it. We want everyone to play.” This is one way Black and white people on Anguilla get along.
Anguilla Pickleball Anguilla Dana Aurora Ryan Everything Island Golf Club Ryan Williams Martin
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