Battle of the ParksPickleball
Claim your park

October 2026  ·  Hudson & Bergen County, NJ

Battleof theParks

Six parks. One Saturday. One banner. You don't play for a club here — you play for the courts you actually show up to, against the people two towns over who think theirs are better. Fun first. Score kept.

Claim your park See the format

Rosters open now. Captains needed at all six parks.

The Card

When
October 2026
Saturday TBA
Where
Host courts TBA
Hudson County
Parks
6
Divisions
3.5+  /  4.0+  /  4.5+
Play
Doubles, round robin
Entry
TBA
Prize
A banner and a year of it

The Six

Every park sends one team across three divisions. Crests are ours — no town seals, no county logos, nothing borrowed.

Roster rule

Who gets to rep a park

This only works if the rivalry is real. To wear a park's colors you have to meet one of two tests — and one is enough.

You play there

You're a regular on those courts. Not once last summer — regularly, and other regulars would recognize you. Your captain confirms it.

Or you live there

You live in the city or township that park belongs to. Residency alone qualifies you, even if you mostly play indoors somewhere else.

  • One park per player, for the whole event. Pick the one you'd defend in an argument.
  • If you qualify for two, choose before rosters close. No switching after.
  • Captains vouch for their own roster. A challenged player sits until it's sorted.
  • Ratings are self-reported and honest. Sandbagging down a division gets you pulled, not a medal.

How the day runs

Draft format. It gets locked when entries close, once we know how many bodies each park brought.

  1. Check in, get your color

    Find your captain, grab your park's shirt, meet the three people you're about to be responsible to.

  2. Pool play

    Round robin inside your division. Games to 11, win by 2, hard cap on time so the day actually ends.

  3. Crossovers

    Seeded matchups between pools. This is where a park either banks points or starts doing math.

  4. Division finals

    Three finals, one per division, played on the same court while everyone else watches.

  5. Banner

    Park points totaled. Winning park takes the banner home to its own fence until next October.

DivisionRatingWho it's for
3.5+3.50 – 3.99You know the kitchen rules, you're working on the third shot, and you have opinions about paddles.
4.0+4.00 – 4.49Speed-ups don't rattle you, and you can reset a hard ball into the kitchen instead of popping it up.
4.5+4.50 and upYou dink with a plan — patient until there's an opening, then you take it.

How a park wins

  • Every match a park wins is 1 park point, whatever the division.
  • Winning a division final is 3 bonus points.
  • Tie goes to head-to-head record, then total point differential.
  • A park that can't field all three divisions still plays — it just leaves points on the table.

House rules

Call your own lines

Honestly, and give the benefit of the doubt on anything you'd have to squint at. No referees, no replays.

Everybody plays

Nobody drives out here to hold a fence. Captains rotate their roster through pool play.

Talk your trash

Loudly, and about the park, not the person. It's the whole point of the event.

Then shake hands

Paddle taps at the net, every match. You'll see these people at open play on Tuesday.

Claim your park

Sign up here and your entry gets emailed straight to the organizers. Nothing's charged and nothing's final until rosters close.