The 1st Camp Susan Curtis Pickleball Tournament was great. We were not.

The welcome speech at Foreside Fit, back when Team Sodium & Gomorrah was still undefeated.

The first Camp Susan Curtis Pickleball Tournament was on Saturday, October 17, at Foreside Fit in Falmouth. Tom and I were glad to be part of it. It was one of the best-run tournaments we have played in, and it was for a good cause. Our own play is covered further down, unfortunately.

Very well organized

Camp Susan Curtis has run a golf tournament as its fundraiser for more than 20 years. This year it switched to pickleball, and 34 teams signed up across beginner, intermediate and advanced brackets. That is 68 players on twelve courts, plus a good crowd watching on most of them.

Every game had a court observer keeping score, and games started when the schedule said they would. Somebody put a lot of work into that.

Between games there was a catered lounge with food, drinks and cornhole, plus tables from local businesses. Nobody went hungry, even the teams having a bad day.

The food ran along one of the nets. Better placement than anything we hit all day.

Why we were all there

Camp Susan Curtis is a tuition-free summer camp in Stoneham, Maine, for kids facing economic hardship. It started in 1974 in memory of Susan Curtis, the daughter of Governor Kenneth Curtis, who died of cystic fibrosis at 11. The camp has hosted thousands of Maine kids since then.

That is what the tournament was for. If you want to help too, the camp takes donations here.

Results

• Advanced Bracket

  • 1st: Birdboys (Carl Swanson, Ben Robinson)

  • 2nd: Forthwith (Ken Decatur, John Lightbody)

  • 3rd: The Lobfather (Molly Dower, Matt Pettengill)

    
    

• Intermediate Bracket

  • 1st: The Weathermen (Teunis Van De Graaf, Adam Mitchell)

  • 2nd: Dink Dank Dunk (Cameron Labrie, John Bolter)

    
    

• Beginner Bracket

  • 1st: Everywhere but the Kitchen (Brandon Brichetto, Dakota Brichetto)

  • 2nd: Dink Responsibly (Matthew Parrino, Eesha Pendharkar)

    
    

Congratulations to all of them. Good team names, too.

Each first-place team went home in SALT collared court shirts, and the top two teams in every bracket got a SALT paddle discount.

Not us. You can tell b/c that ball's going to land inbounds.

How Team Sodium & Gomorrah did (not great)

We played in the advanced bracket as Team Sodium & Gomorrah. Five teams, round robin, then playoffs. We finished 2-3.

Game one was against Birdboys. We came out flat and got destroyed. Birdboys went on to win the whole thing, which made us feel a little better.

John in game two. Probably still crying about game one.

Games two and three were against The Lobfather and Silver Bells. We won both, which gave us some misplaced confidence.

Game four was against Forthwith. We had the lead twice and gave it back twice. Forthwith was ahead when the game hit its time cap. Although we would have liked a few more minutes, we had plenty of minutes before that and did not do much with them.

In the third-place match, The Lobfather, the same team we played a few hours earlier, put the final nail in our proverbial coffin.

Matt Pettengill and Molly Dower of The Lobfather, doing work.

We went to support the camp and not to win the tournament, which is good, because we only managed one of those.

After the last game

After the tournament is where the magic happened. Folks continued to play, eat, drink, and mingle. This is also when the live music started. It was one of the most enjoyable tournament environments we've ever been to. Really well done, Jane! This is also when the paddle demos started happening, mainly the C-605. We're always eager to have people demo our paddles, but it's a tall ask in a competitive environment. However, the flood gates opened up after the final tournament games. If you want to hit one yourself, here is where to demo SALT paddles in southern Maine.

Thank you

To Jane Nicoll and everyone at Camp Susan Curtis who put this together and let us be part of it. To Dave Cousins and Elliot at Foreside Fit, who built the brackets. To Foreside Fit for the courts, and to lead sponsor Martin's Point Health Care. And to the court observers, who watched every one of our games and wrote it all down.

We have played a few charity tournaments in Maine now, like the NAMI Mental Health Matters to ME tournament and the Giving Thanks tournament for Maine Needs. We were lucky to be part of this one, and we will be back next year if they will have us. We plan to play better.

FAQ

When and where was the Camp Susan Curtis Pickleball Tournament?

Saturday, October 17, 2026, from 2 to 7 PM at Foreside Fit, 196 US Route 1, Falmouth, Maine.

What was the format?

All-gender doubles in beginner, intermediate and advanced brackets. Round robin, then playoffs, with a time cap on games.

Who won?

Birdboys won advanced, The Weathermen won intermediate and Everywhere but the Kitchen won beginner. The full results are in the list above.

What does Camp Susan Curtis do?

It runs a tuition-free summer camp in Stoneham, Maine, for Maine kids facing economic hardship. You can read more and donate at susancurtis.org.

Will there be a 2027 tournament?

The camp called this its first annual tournament. Watch their pickleball page for next year's date.