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Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket: The Pickler Limerick Challenge Heats Up

Murmurs from the Losers' Bracket Frank Cerabino 03-06-2023

We here at Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket are happy to report that the ongoing Pickler Limerick Challenge is drawing lots of entries.

It makes sense. After playing pickleball, the thing that pickleballers like most is talking about playing pickleball. So, it stands to reason that some of them would be masters of rhyming verse.

Or to put it another way, that they’d be able to make succinct and funny observations about pickleball, which is so rich with comedic fodder.

Here’s an example:   

A pickleball lass named Babette
Wore outfits as tight as they get
The old boys did lust her
But all they could muster
Were weak little dinks at the net
 

That was one of the several stellar contest entries submitted by Joe Carty, 65, an avid recreational pickleballer from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket: The Pickler Limerick Challenge Heats Up | Pickler Pickleball

Carty found pickleball while recovering from hip replacement surgery due in part to his tennis playing. Thinking that pickleball was part of his path to rehab, he gave the game a try as therapy.

“On the first day playing pickleball, I went for a ball and my achilles went ‘pop’, so that was another two years of rehab,” he told me.

But did he give up? No, he didn’t. He plays pickleball multiple times a week now.

“I never played tennis again,” he said.

And as a former creative director in an advertising company, he has discovered he also likes rhyming about pickleball too.

Here’s another one of his poems.

A cocky young tennis pro Bill
Said picklers were over the hill
He thought it’d be easy
To whup grandpa weazy
But was beaten eleven to nil
 

While Carty is adept with the pickleball rhymes, he’s certainly not alone among the enthusiastic pickleballers who’ve written to MFTLB with their entries and stories.

People like Robert Canaan, a certified coach living in Rosarito Beach, Mexico.

“The limerick I’m sending is a small tribute to the retired older Americans I train here,” he wrote. His limerick:

Old Joe was no pickleball master
His game was a total disaster
His friends were consoling.
They mentioned bowling.
But he’d already found the hereafter.
 

Pickleballer Kathleen Gallegos, who plays with the Wickenburg Ranch Pickleball Club, in Arizona, said she was up to 1:30 writing pickleball limericks.

Gallegos gets extra points for getting in some product placement.

There once was a pickler from Missoula
Who yearned and yearned for a Joola
Simone or Ben
It was such a strong yen
There was nothing else to consoule her.
 

Other rhymers have also written limericks that mention pickleball pros. That’s good too. Here’s one by Delray Beach, Florida pickleballer Daniella Niss that pays homage to the South Florida pro Anna Bright.

There once was a player, oh so Bright
Who came on the pickleball scene with great delight
Her fans are loud and happy to cheer
As she rocks the pickleball world on its rear
When she’s on the court, y’all better be ready to fight
 

Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket: The Pickler Limerick Challenge Heats Up | Pickler Pickleball

The contest will continue for another couple weeks, with results being announced in the next Pickler newsletter.

We here in the poetry division of Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket will be working diligently to select the “winners.”

The first-place winner will get a copy of my book, “I Dink Therefore I Am: Coming to Grips with my Pickleball Addiction.”

The second-place winner will get two copies of the book. 

And some of the best poems readers have submitted will be passed along for your enjoyment in the upcoming newsletter.

Poems like this one from Jeff Rice, a pickleball player in West Palm Beach, Florida.

There was a slight pickler named Mort
Who hogged every ball on the court
While covering lob
He ran into Big Bob
Last week, his funeral was short
 

If you’d like to join the fun, please submit your limericks and something about your own pickleball adventure to frank@thepickler.com.

MURMURS FROM THE LOSERS’ BRACKET

Read past editions of Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket, including:

Frank Cerabino is a long-time columnist for the Palm Beach Post in Florida, a pickleball addict like the rest of us, and a newly published author. Check out Frank’s newly released book, I Dink, Therefore I Am: Coming to Grips with My Pickleball Addiction (available on Amazon and a great read (or gift!) for any pickleball player), for pickleball tips and laughs!

I Dink, Therefore I Am | Frank Cerabino

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