Claremont’s Pickleball Queens

By Mark Chamberlain
SPECIAL TO
THE EAGLE TIMES
CLAREMONT, N.H. — Ann Cuadrado and Joyce Bielarski are two people you may not want to see across the pickleball net.

The Claremont residents, both in their 70s, are experienced players, known in the community as fierce, but friendly, competitors. They play hard. They play fair. They also play to win.

But, if you are a competitive sort, want to have some great fun and improve your game, you will want to seek them out.

You may have heard that pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the United States. Although the sport has been around since the 1960s, when it was invented by a group of friends in Washington, it did not really take off until the world was hit with the coronavirus pandemic. Starting in 2020, thousands of people began posting online about the sport that could be safely played outside.

In our area, you can find opportunities to play in Claremont, Newbury, Lebanon and Springfield, Vt.

Claremont has a robust pickleball scene, with the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center offering court time several days a week. Ann and Joyce can regularly be found there, looking to add wins to their records. In addition, Ann has a pickleball court at her house where she invites friends over to play a few mornings per week. Joyce, one of Ann’s neighbors, can always be counted on to play.

When Ann and her husband Steve retired 10 years ago, they began wintering in Florida, where they discovered pickleball. They loved it from the start. In 2017, Steve, a longtime Claremont resident who passed away three years ago, had the idea of installing a pickleball court in their backyard. At first, Ann wasn’t sure it was a good move. She was concerned it might bother the neighbors. Would it ruin the look of their beautiful backyard? Would they, over time, regret allocating the space to it?

Ann says the answer to those questions is a resounding “No.”

“It’s one of the best decisions we ever made,” she said. “Now that my husband is no longer with us, the pickleball court is a tribute to him and a lovely reminder of his boundless energy and his love of the sport. He would be so tickled to know that we continue to enjoy the court regularly with friends and family.”

Joyce, prior to Steve inviting her to play one day as she was out walking in the neighborhood, had never heard of the game.

“I’ve always been a very active person,” she said, “but I was not aware that pickleball existed.”

Steve convinced her to give it a go and she hasn’t looked back. Between playing at the community center and at Ann’s house, Joyce figures she devotes seven or eight hours per week to the sport.

Both Ann and Joyce credit the sport with helping to keep them young and deepening their friendship. They had been friendly neighbors prior to playing pickleball, but countless games in Ann’s backyard were the catalyst of the close friendship they now enjoy.

A pickleball court is about one third the size of a tennis court and games are almost always played in doubles. As a result, four people on a small court, in close proximity to one another, fosters friendly banter and, sometimes, even some harmless trash-talking.

There is often so much laughter emanating from Ann’s court, one of her neighbors jokingly calls it “cackleball.”

If you find yourself at the Community Center on the days when pickleball is played, look for Ann and Joyce. Whether playing with them or against them, you are sure to have fun and learn a great deal.