To all the picklers out there: Patience, the game's going your way

Teething pains are inevitable and we should keep the noise down, but pickleball is here to stay.

- Danson Cheong

Take a walk through any Singapore neighbourhood, and you'll hear the familiar hum of everyday residential living: the roar of traffic, the clangour of men and machines on construction sites, the sound of children at play.

But now, there is a new sound: the rhythmic pock-pock-pock of pickleball.

The staccato beat of paddles against plastic balls has drawn the ire of residents across the island, who complain that the sport is too noisy.

Fights have broken out between irate residents and pickleball players who call themselves "picklers" - and complaints have been made to MPs and town councils.

The issue even came up in Parliament in September, when National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat said in a reply to MPs that the Municipal Services Office received 701 complaints about noisy picklers in HDB estates between January 2024 and this August.

Pickleball is a racket sport played on a badminton-sized court, and has been described by enthusiasts as a cross between tennis and table tennis.

It was invented in the United States in the 1960s, but its popularity in Singapore has surged in recent years, in part because it is so easy to learn to play.