Albany trio clinch doubles gold medals to become State champions and earn invitations to national finals

Three Albany pickleball players have become State champions, earning golden tickets to the national finals in Brisbane later this year.

The WA Pickleball Championships took place in Perth, with Albany stars Jenny Rickerby, Yvonne Denham and Geoff Belz winning doubles titles in the over-70, 3.0 and above section.

The event was staged from February 27 to March 2, with Rickerby finishing the competition with two gold medals.

She topped the podium with Denham in the women’s doubles and then triumphed with Belz in the mixed — beating Denham and her partner, Queensland-based Alan Morris in the final.

Rickerby and Belz beat top Perth pair Anne Goodridge and Greg Tower in the mixed semifinal, running out winners in a 16-14 thriller.

That earned them the right to tackle Denham and Morris in the final.

In their round-robin clash, the Albany-Queensland pair had won convincingly 15-4, but Belz and Rickerby turned the tables to run out champions 15-5.

In the women’s doubles gold-medal match, Rickerby and Denham beat Goodridge and Gina Fenn 15-12 to take the title.

As an Australian ranking event, the gold medallists will be invited to represent WA in the national tournament.

Other Albany competitors taking part were Denver and Asher Craig.

Asher Craig played up an age group, competing in the under-15 boys’ singles and coming fifth overall in his 10-player group to just miss out on the medal play-offs.

Dad Denver Craig was playing his first tournament for several years and was happy to win a match in his singles round-robin section.

The tournament had 950 competition entries from 450 players who took part in 75 adult and 11 junior events.