2026 Greater Geelong Pickleball League

Ladder League Format Details

• Bring yourself, play doubles: The competition is designed so you don't need to organise a playing partner; just book yourself in - we organise your double games for the night.
• Flexible Attendance: The league is played on 10 Friday nights from 6:15pm to 8:15pm, starting on Friday May 15th 2026 and finishing on Friday July 31st 2026, with no play on Friday June 5th due to the Warrnambool Open. You can still miss some nights, but you will need to play at least 5 of the 10 sessions to receive a final ladder ranking.
• General Playing format: Each week you will be assigned to one court where you will play round robin doubles; there will be anywhere between 4 and 6 players assigned to one court and the number of players decides the playing format:
  • 6 players per court: Play to 12 (Not win by 2)
    Each player plays with every other player once; so everyone gets 5 games to 12, the maximum score is 60.
  • 5 players per court: Play to 15 (Not win by 2)
    Each player plays with every other player once; so everyone gets 4 games to 15, the maximum score is 60.
  • 4 players per court: Play to 10 (Not win by 2)
    Each player plays with every other player once, two rounds are played; so everyone gets 6 games to 10, the maximum score is 60.
  The reason we don't play win by 2 is because that ensures everyone has the same maximum number of points they can achieve, which is part of the scoring.
• Play at your level: The format of play is designed so that players play mostly with others of similar skill levels. Firstly, play will take place in two divisions: Division 1 is for players that are already club graded Intermediate 3 or Advanced. If you select to play in Division 1 and don't have that grading you may initially be placed in Division 2 at the discretion of the league organisers. Division 2 is designated for players that don't have a club grading yet or have an Intermediate 2 grading.
  Secondly, at every game day, you will be placed in a group with players according to your current position on the league ladder. If you don't have a position on the ladder yet (i.e. on the very first game day), players will be assigned to a court by the league organisers. As an example: If we have 12 players in the league and they all turn up, then the top 4 will play each other on court 1, the middle 4 will play each other on court 2, and the bottom 4 play each other on court 3.
  Depending on the number of players booking in to a gameday, the ideal situation is for all courts to have the same number of players. If that's not possible, extra players will be added to lower courts first.
• Scoring: Your score is recorded as a percentage score, dividing the number of points you got by the maximum number of points possible.
  Example: If you play on a court with 5 players, the maximum score you can get in each game is 15. So if your scores were 15:10, 15:7, 9:15, 10:15, then your total number of points for the night were 15+15+9+10 = 49, the maximum score was 60, so your percentage score for that gameday would be 49 / 60 = 81.6%, which is recorded as 816
  For 2026 we expect to keep the same basic idea that court position matters, because it keeps the ladder stable and easy to understand, and stops one strong night on a lower court from causing unrealistic jumps. The planned change is that instead of using fixed gaps between courts, the court weighting will be adjusted according to the actual PIRAT strength of the players on each court that night, then normalised back to the familiar 1000-style scale. In practice this means players will still be rewarded for performing well on higher courts, but the ladder will better reflect nights where the courts are closer together or further apart in strength.
  After each game day the ladders for each division are updated and published on the club's website. Final ladder positions will only be awarded to players who have played at least 5 sessions.
• Moving between divisions: If you play in the higher division and your score falls below 60% for your last 3 played game days you may be moved to the lower division where you will then start on the top court with a clean score. Similarly if you play in the lower division and your score is 90% or more for your last 3 played game days then you will be moved to the higher division where you will start on the lowest court with a clean score. Depending on the number of players we get we may also split the competition into 3 divisions.
• Awards: The top 3 players in each division will be presented with a prize the top player will be named the 2026 Greater Geelong Pickleball League Champion in their division. In order to qualify for a final ladder placement you will need to have played in at least 5 of the 10 sessions.
• Cost: There is a one off registration fee of $10 for the league (10% off for our Happy Picklers, 20% off for our Totally Pickled members); you then pay your session fee when you book into each gameday.
  If you register for the league it may be worthwhile upgrading your membership before you do so to take advantage of the session discounts and early gameday booking benefits available to the paid membership types.
• PIRAT/DUPR: Note that your scores in this league will count towards both your PIRAT and your DUPR.