Using Pickleball to Boost the Wellbeing of Young Londoners
We are building the first charity to provide pickleball to under-served children in London.
53% of London’s children don’t reach the government recommendation for daily activity according to Sport England.
We believe introducing children to pickleball can help change that, one session at a time.
“Pickleball has the power to change lives – and the Lemon Pickleball Foundation is building exactly the kind of grassroots pathway that under-served children deserve. We’re proud to support their mission to bring pickleball to children across London.” Karen Mitchell, Pickleball England
Initial Fundraising
We are targeting an initial fundraise of £15k to cover our start-up costs of obtaining charitable status and delivering 20 pilot taster sessions to our school partners.
For the moment we will just be taking names and emails. If you are interested please click below. We will contact you with updates once we are ready to start accepting donations. You can pledge your interest by clicking the button below.
why Pickleball?
01
Accessible & Inclusive
Pickleball does not require specialised and expensive infrastructure and can be played year-round in school sports halls.
02
fun from the Get-go
The learning curve is fast and satisfying. Data shows that it has wide appeal across age-groups and abilities.
03
Growing Demand
Pickleball England’s target is to grow the number of UK players to 1 million by 2030. In contrast to other racket sports, more women play than men.
The Challenge We Are Addressing
Inequality of Opportunity to be Physically Active
Sport England data shows that over half of children and young people in England are not meeting the recommended guidelines for physical activity.
Girls are less likely to be active, as are children from low income families and ethnic minority backgrounds.
Lifetime Impact
Adults often have a negative association with physical activity and sport that is learned in childhood – often as a result of poor coaching and uninclusive sports.
A 2026 poll by Age UK found that 30% of 2,400 middle-aged adults said that past sports memories had put them off exercise for life.
Constraints on Facilities in Urban Areas
There is a high demand on limited sports infrastructure in the most urban parts of London.
London is one of the hardest places in England to find a place to play sport. 12 of the 15 local authorities with the lowest number of publicly accessible sports facilities per 10,000 people are in London. (Sport England)
Pickleball requires no new facilities.
Low Engagement in Sport
Team sport is proven to deepen social trust, develop soft skills, and support a sense of belonging.
Levels of children’s participation in team sport remains below pre-pandemic levels. Happiness scores – which correlate to engagement in physical activity and sport – have also dropped since the pandemic. (Sport England)
Why Are We Creating a Foundation?
Lemon Pickleball LTD has experienced an increased demand for pickleball in schools in London over the past three years.
We believe that a Foundation can increase participation in the sport more widely than the business would be able to.
The Foundation will have a separate executive team, financial structure, governance accountability and mission, but it will benefit from the institutional knowledge and relationships that the business has with schools and equipment suppliers, and of course boosted by access to charitable grants alongside private, statutory and corporate contributions.
Lemon Pickleball believes that pickleball is for everyone, and that every child deserves the chance to enjoy the benefits to physical, mental and social wellbeing that we know it brings.
We are building an experienced trustee board with a commitment to the highest standards of safeguarding, transparency and impact reporting.
Please get in touch if you have any questions.
Our Team
Josh Crine
Josh tells anyone he meets about the positive impact of sport on learning, wellbeing and community. He has recently advised CEOs of charities providing sport in schools across London on statutory partnerships, communications and funding. A keen ball sports player, off the court his experience lies in strategic communications and operations within the non-profit sector, with a background in developing beneficial partnerships between private organisations and government bodies.
Ash Spencer
Ash is co-founder Lemon Pickleball LTD. He discover pickleball in Australia, and on arrival back in London he was disappointed at the lack of opportunities to play. Due to his growing passion for the sport, Ash decided to enroll a couple of close friends and racket sport enthusiasts to help grow pickleball in the UK.
Alex Minogue-Stone
Alex is co-founder of Lemon Pickleball LTD. He has been involved with sport for as long as he can remember, and began his racket sports career playing tennis, competing regionally on a weekly basis Now, Alex runs Lemon Pickleball LTD and spends his days trying to grow the game of pickleball in London. Alex also plays pickleball competitively and is one of the top players in the UK!
Del Cooke
Del Cooke is a formidably experienced senior educator, having led both the Henrietta Barnett School and Sir William Perkins' School. She is a current governor of several schools across London and the South-East, and brings an authoritative understanding of safeguarding and charity trusteeship.
Robin street
Robin Street loves everything about pickleball. He is Director of Innovation at North London Collegiate School, with 25 years of school leadership across challenging urban contexts including headship. He has brokered partnerships with institutions including UCL and Tottenham Hotspur, and brings experience as a school governor, company director and charitable foundation trustee.
Jonah Stephens
Jonah is Head of Junior Programming at Lemon Pickleball LTD. Starting out as a tennis coach. Jonah now runs the Junior pickleball programmes, and is extremely passionate about growing the game of pickleball amongst young people,