It’s a sport Judy Murray - mum of two-time Wimbledon champion Andy - is becoming increasingly involved with and is also played by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, George Clooney and Ellen DeGeneres.

Pickleball has been taking off in the past few years in Kent, too, as Canterbury Area Pickleball follows other clubs from Thanet.

But it’s not only in the Garden of England where the sport is thriving, with Judy Murray - who has another son, Jamie Murray, who is also a Wimbledon champion - having been unveiled as a new Ambassador for Pickleball Scotland last year.

“Up and down the country, it’s massive,” said Lisa Evans, who was involved in setting up Canterbury Area Pickleball.

“Andy Murray’s mum, Judy, has been playing in our Scotland club.

“Andy Murray has played it and Andy Murray’s mum has just completed a pickleball coaching course, so now she can teach her friends to play it.

“It’s massive. I know a lot of people don’t hear about it, but it really is big.”

It’s also popular in the United States and Europe.

Evans added: “George Clooney is playing it, as well as Ellen DeGeneres.

“You have got loads of celebrities playing it and that does highlight it.

“In America, they have pickleball villages where they have 250 courts - and all they do, all day, is play pickleball!

“But they have the space out there. And the weather.

“In Spain and Italy and places like that, they play outside a lot more.

“But we struggle with the outside generally down to the weather and it’s down to court space.”

Evans has been key in setting up Canterbury Area Pickleball.

She said: “If I was honest, I was probably expecting about 50.

“But people just want to play pickleball all day and it gets word of mouth, really, through ‘Oh, I’m playing at this club and we’re having a festival’ so other people think ‘Oh yeah, I’ll come along.’ Then everybody is sort of asking ‘when is the next one going to be?’.”

Pickleball comes from America and combines elements of tennis, ping-pong and badminton. But what is it?

Take a paddle (a bit like what you use when on the beach on your summer holidays), a plastic ball with holes in it (a wiffle) and then lower a badminton net and you’re just about there.

“I do struggle to put certain people on some courts because of their age and ability,” conceded Evans.

“But every week, I make sure they’re on a court somewhere - even if it’s just me and two others playing with them, and we just do a bit of a ‘dinky’ game.

“The main part of pickleball is ‘dinking’ at the net. It’s not played on a baseline like tennis.

“So we just do some kitchen games which are played at the net, which then allows them to play because I know I would rather them be on a pickleball court than sat at home, bored in the evening because they’re not doing any activity at all.”

She previously helped start a club in Ramsgate about seven years ago, which is still running.

Evans said: “Invicta Pickleball, they’re still going. There’s one at Baypoint on a Wednesday night.

“It’s run by different people now but, for us, the more clubs, the better.

“We’re actually doing a session at Polo Farm on August 17. It’s an Ed Glover charity event for a young lad that passed away last year, so we’re doing two courts of pickleball up there for a charity event, which is a massive tennis hub.

“But I think they’d like to introduce pickleball at some point.”

Now with Canterbury Area Pickleball, they held their first festival in June at the University of Kent - and it proved a massive success.

Evans, herself from Canterbury, reflected: “It went really well.

“We had capacity for 80, we advertised for 80, and I think we had about 90 in the end.

“We had a beginners’ court for ‘newbies’ to try it out, from which four came along to try it and all four have since come along to join.

“Then we had coaching sessions for people who haven’t been playing for long with professional pickleball players.”

Funds were raised for a charity called Friends of Thai Daughter while another festival has been set up for next January, again at the university.

There is a competitive element, too. Evans has been competing in the UK and in Europe and has won many gold, silver and bronze medals.

She said: “I have been playing for nine years. Previously, I was a qualified BoxFit and run coach so I’d done lots of running groups. But they dropped off.

“Whereas with pickleball, people say ‘I can’t do that because I have pickleball’ whereas before, with boxing or running, people would say ‘I can’t come tonight because I’m washing my hair’ or ‘the dog’s hurt his foot’ - all these silly excuses. But no one drops off from pickleball.

“In fact the more they play, the more they want, because it’s fun.

“Some sports can be a bit clicky and this isn’t.”

The sport has presented Evans with the opportunity to travel abroad as well.

She explained: “I’d never been to Ireland. We went to Ireland to play in a little village and ended up going to Dublin and Galway afterwards.

“We didn’t lose a match so I won gold with my partner in mixed doubles and golds with my women’s doubles partner. That was about four or five years ago.

“In Spain, I’ve won gold.

“I’ve won medals out in Amsterdam and that’s a really good tournament out there.”

Pickleball is also a sport which doesn’t cost much to play, either, according to Evans.

She said: “It takes five minutes to put a net up.

“The nets cost £100 to £150. A paddle can start from £35.

“You can pay quite a lot of money for a paddle but, generally, your basic paddle can cost you maybe £100 but last you a long time.”

Canterbury Area Pickleball presently play on Tuesday evenings but hope to start on Thursday nights as well.