LUMBERTON – Pickleball has arrived in Lumberton.

The paddle sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong is getting its first official court just outside the city limits at the corner of Meadow and East Powersville roads.

“It’s like miniature tennis,” said Robeson County Commissioner David Edge, who has played a significant role in developing the new pickleball court.

A ribbon cutting is scheduled to be held at 11 a.m. on April 13 at the 3924 Meadow Road location that many locals will recognize as the Meadow Road Athletic Park. It’s the same area as the dog park on Meadow Road.

This looks to be the first true pickleball court in Lumberton.

The official opening will feature a pickleball tournament and a pool of players that will include participants from different counties, according to Edge.

“There will be room for anyone else who wants to come and learn how to play. Try it out. That’s what it’s all about,” Edge said. “They tell me it’s the fastest growing sport in America now. When it first came to my attention, I’d never heard tell of it, to tell you the truth.”

The event is open to the public.

“I got it built – actually, we’ve been working on it for a year,” Edge said late last month. “Finally, got it started in early winter and pretty much finished it.. Had it open now for probably 90 days, and we wanted to kind of do a spring opening and ribbon cutting kind of thing. Do some publicity, hopefully, so that people in the county would know it’s there.”

At this time, there’s an informal club in the city — the Robeson County NC Pickleballers — that has been working with Edge to make the court a reality. Anyone who wants to play is welcome to come out and participate.

He said he has a truck driver, Alan Prevatte, who started playing the game.

That was about 18 months ago, the 65-year-old Prevatte said. “I started out when a friend introduced me to it. I started, and it went from there. Pickleball is as physical as you want it to be. You go at it as hard as you want to. When I play and when I get through playing, I’m sore because I went at it 100%.”

He called it great that the Lumberton area will have its own pickleball court.

“It’s six beautiful courts,” Prevatte said, adding that he was going out to hang the windscreens around the court.

“Just the main thing is trying to spread the word that we got that in the county now. Let people know,” Edge said. “I went by there today, and there were probably 20 people out there playing. Which is encouraging to see when you do something like that and people actually use it.”

The sport that is growing in popularity is played on a court similar to a tennis court. However, the pickleball court is smaller.

The game can be played as singles or doubles.

The serve is made underhand and diagonally across the court. The first team to score 11 points and lead by at least two points wins the game.

Edge’s involvement came about as a member of the Robeson County Board of Commissioners and listening to his constituency. ”They approach you about activities like baseball and all these other things. They said they liked to have a pickleball court. They had a tennis court there that probably had not been used for 20 years. So (we) kind of renovated that court and made six pickleball courts out of it.

“It’s just a good little deal for the community and an activity they can play in the daylight,” he said. “And, actually, we’re going to put some lights up. The county is redoing all the athletic fields with lights. We’ll pick out some of the best stuff they’re taking down. In the summertime, people can play after dark. They’ll be able to do that.”

He said a man who had worked with him for over 30 years — his former general manager up until about two years ago — is the one who told Edge that a pickleball court was needed in Robeson County.

That was Stevie Flowers, who has since relocated to Greenville, South Carolina. It was Flowers who introduced Prevatte to the sport.

“Somebody had put him on it, and he started playing,” Edge recalled of Flowers. “And they were going down to the Bill Sapp Recreation Center, and they were letting them go on the inside basketball court and tape off an area where they could play. They would have to remove the tape ever so often and put it back out and that kind of thing. They still on a bad day, they could go down there and play at the recreation department.”

Guy started promoting the game in the area. “And he’s the guy who really got it going,” Edge said. “And he came to me and he said, ‘We’d love to have a pickleball court somewhere.’ From that, I thought about this old tennis court that was not being used …”

As for the county commissioner, he plans to start playing one of these days for the exercise.

Edge said he had never played the sport.

“A new activity,” he added with a laugh. ”It’s very healthy. That’s the thing about it. I need to lose a little weight, and I’m getting a little old, and I’m getting stiff, and I need some exercise. And I sure don’t like to exercise. If I can get this in my system, I think it will be good for me.”

Prevatte said he wants everybody to come out and try playing pickleball.

They may find that they really enjoy it.

“It’s the only game that you can lose,” he added, “and still have fun.”