‘I tried Pickleball - Taylor Swift's favourite sport taking the UK by storm - it combines tennis, ping pong and badminton’

If tennis, badminton, and table tennis had a love child it would be called Pickleball.

I’d never heard of Pickleball, until I saw on Facebook that Wakefield School of Tennis was launching Pickleball sessions. Apparently, it’s Taylor Swift’s favourite sport.

If I’m honest it was the quirky name that drew me in.

Most weekends I am busy watching my daughters play cricket or netball and reminiscing about the weekends as a youngster I used to be busy playing team sports.

With a busy household and work I don’t have the time to commit to being part of a squad because most of the time my sporting life is spent running from activity to activity for the kids.

I headed down to Wakefield Girls High School’s multi-purpose courts. It was a gloomy wet night, the kind where you just want to curl up by the fire in front of the TV. Except I don’t have a fire and I had been at home working all day.

I walked into the court, a bit anxious, with a babe in arms, to be met by floodlights and a warm greeting.

To my surprise the warm up and introduction was done while playing on a badminton court. We were handed paddles, slightly bigger than table tennis bats but smaller than tennis rackets, and a lightweight plastic ball with holes in it.

Pickleball England explains it more succinctly than me: “Pickleball is a fun sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis.

“Played both indoors or outdoors on a badminton-sized court and a slightly modified tennis net. Two or four players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball over a net.”

The association now has 9,000 members and along with Sports England they estimate 35,000 people across the UK currently play pickleball.

What struck me was how sociable this sport is. It’s for all levels and abilities.

I didn’t quite understand the points system and like some other sports, only the serving team is able to score points.

There’s also a no volley zone nicknamed a kitchen. As this was our first session we just played doubles and swapped sides.

While you’re playing with a paddle similar to Padel, a squash style tennis sport taking the world by storm, unlike padel you’re not batting the ball to bounce off the walls.

I found myself giggling, leaping around and even sweating with this low impact sport. Better still I didn’t notice the horrid weather outside nor the cleaning and tea-making duties I had to get home for.

Pickleball is extremely accessible and perfect for us grown ups who don’t have the luxury of engaging in sports for fun. You don’t need friends, you’ll make them over the net.

Wakefield School of Tennis runs a range of sessions for all ages who want to play tennis or pickleball.