Wayne West plays pickleball at the Udall Center, where the game is fiercely popular. Games can also be found at the private Voyager RV Resort, 8701 S. Kolb Road, and on Thursday mornings at the Clements Center, 8155 E. Poinciana Drive.

A.E. Araiza / arizona daily star

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It's a game with a silly name, but some East Side folks who play every Thursday morning are serious about the fun they're having.

Pickleball combines tennis, pingpong and badminton on a small court with light rackets and a lightweight ball.

At the Clements Center, 8155 E. Poinciana Drive, a group of devotees gather from 9 a.m. to noon on Thursdays to play this lively game.

It appears to make the players laugh as hard as they sweat.

"Yes, it provides lots of giggles and lots of fun," said Ruth Blanchard, 70.

A year ago, Blanchard underwent a complicated surgery on her hip, which had been previously replaced.

During her recovery, Blanchard said she walked regularly along the elevated indoor track above the Clements Center's gymnasium and often watched the pickleball games down below.

"I was so depressed. I wanted to come down and play," she said of the first times she saw the game. "I can't run now, but I could see this was something I could do."

And for Blanchard the word play is in the kid sense. She said older people often forget how important and fun it is to compete a little, to learn something new and to get regular exercise.

"I just love to play, to play in general," she said, explaining she has been a long-distance swimmer for years and enjoyed skiing and tennis until her hip started giving her trouble.

But back to pickleball.

By April, Blanchard had recovered enough to join the group and that's when she got hooked, she said.

"I can't hardly wait for Thursday mornings now so I can come out and play pickleball," she said.

Gwen McKinney agrees.

"It's more fun than the elliptical machine at the gym. I really look forward to Thursdays," said McKinney, 56, a recently retired teacher.

The game was started in the mid-1960s by Bill Bell and Joel Pritchard, a former congressman and lieutenant governor of Washington.

It's named after a dog, Pickles, who used to chase the ball while games were under way.

Players use a simplified combination of tennis rules on a badminton-size court, 20 feet wide by 44 feet long.

The small court means less strain on the body, Blanchard said, which works well for many of the retirees who are now enjoying the sport in Tucson.

In addition to the Clements Center, games are also being played on Thursday mornings at the Udall Center, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road.

Blanchard said she'd like to see more players and games locally, and hopes the sport keeps catching on.

One of the first places the game took hold locally was at the private Voyager RV Resort, 8701 S. Kolb Road, where four more courts have been built recently to meet the demand of residents there.

Last year, pickleball was part of the Tucson Senior Olympics for the first time and games were held on the five Voyager courts. This year, there will be five days of Senior Olympic pickleball games at the resort beginning Jan. 21.

Voyager residents Nancy and David Jordan, both 60, started playing pickleball about five years ago. They spend their winters in Tucson, but travel in the summer months, almost always to places where they can play their favorite game.

"I'm not really a sports person, but that's what happens," Nancy Jordan said. "People who have never done sports before get involved and love it."