Club Spotlight - Sydney Inner West Pickleball Club

Written by President Nick Zhang & The SIWPC Commitee

The Sydney Inner West Pickleball Club (SIWPC) was founded in 2022 as a not for profit venture with funds being utilised to help promote this wonderful sport for the benefit of our members.

Our club has grown very quickly and as of May 2025 has a membership of 450. 170 new members joined in the past 6 months alone.

In addition to word of mouth, there are a number of contributing factors to the explosive growth in our club’s membership:

• Our culture is one of Inclusion, acceptance and respect towards others and we promote a fun and relaxed atmosphere for everyone.
• We have an incredible team of passionate committee members and hosts who volunteer their time, are very hands on and who regularly play in our sessions. This ensures that we get to really know our players and their needs. Feedback is used to continually try to improve the way we run things.
• We host a mixture of sessions every day at our three main venues to suit every level ensuring players get to play with those of a similar level and have a pathway to evolve and improve their skills:
- Beginner plus
- Early Intermediate 
- High Intermediate 
- Early Advanced
- Advanced
- Super Advanced 
• Our club hosts an annual Rainbow Pickleball Championship tournament which is open to everyone and sanctioned by Pickleball Australia. Our first two tournaments were very successful and saw an increase in participation which we intend to expand further.
• We are the first club in Australia to host Rainbow sessions to encourage the LGBTQI+ community to get involved in our sport and we also open these sessions up to our wider membership.
• To reward our regular players, we run the SIWPC Cup with a large prize money pool for our various divisions. Our inaugural Cup in January 2025 comprised of $3500 prizemoney for our advanced and intermediate divisions. We will be expanding on this for our future Cups with the next one scheduled for June 2025.
• To assist our players get tournament ready we regularly run Round Robin and DUPR tournaments for the various levels in our club which are proving incredibly popular and are always at capacity.
• We provide weekly beginner classes to encourage new players and host regular coaching classes and clinics for all levels in our club run by some of Australia’s top coaches / players.
• Social activities include Christmas parties, tournament dinners and social get togethers after many of our special events and sessions. 
• Our club offers three great venues currently and we are looking to expand (stay tuned for news on a 4th venue soon)
- Robyn Webster Sports Centre Tempe (8 indoor courts)
- Peter Forsyth Auditorium Glebe (3 indoor courts)
- Maybanke Community Centre Pyrmont (1 outdoor court)

SIWPC committee:

President - Nick Zhang

Vice President - Craig Hunt

Secretary - Michael Massih

Host Manager/ Open Sports - Mike Clarke

Public Officer - Boyd Pakcharoen

Grants Officer - Nathan Hielman 

Here are some testimonials from a few SIWPC players:

Donna Brown

The friends we’ve made, the fun of the game, participation in events organised by the SIWPC team, as well as the positive attitude of all who play. Thanks Nick & Craig & the team for opening this world to us. 

Liz Reedy

I love the club because it welcomed me in as a beginner and then provided a well organised pathway and coaching that allows me to progress in skill and up the ranks. It runs like a well oiled machine, and is growing an exceptional inclusive and welcoming culture where we do more than play games , engage in tournaments and go to social events; it provides rich opportunities to connect with people.  I would not have met some lovely folk without this sport. We get friendly , fun and responsible hosting of events so your time on the court is guaranteed. At the same time it grows the club and manages this growth with grace and charm. The quality of my life has definitely grown since joining  five months ago. The merchandise is pretty great too!  What a club!!!!

Julie Van Der Lay

SIWPC has us all hooked on this fun game. I always felt welcome from beginners & now theres so much encouragement as your game improves. There's a great mix of ages, gender & skills. The management is awesome.

George Ellis

The club is run so well by Nick, Craig and the team. People like Mike Clarke, Pauline Humphreys and many others all work selflessly to make sure games happen, tournaments happen and all the other activities, just so that the members of the club are able to play pickleball. You all deserve medals. I have always felt very welcome at the club from the day I joined. Thank you. And having 3 venues, at different times of the week, from which to choose is wonderful.

Sue Ingram

It’s my favourite Pickleball session of the week. So well run, so friendly, and yet so challenging. It makes SIWPC such a great club!

Click here to learn more about the SIWPC