ITEMS ON THE COURT RULES, A LIVE SCENARIO

RULES,  RULES! IT'S ALL ABOUT THE RULES, AND NOTHING BUT THE RULES, AS YOU RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND,TO AFFIRM THE PICKLEBALL OATH, WHILE PLACING YOUR LEFT HAND ON THE  2018 USAPA/IFP OFFICIAL PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENT RULEBOOK. 

Those of you who know me will not be surprised when I tell you that my all time favorite read, especially with a cold Guinness Beer gently foaming atop a pint size frosted mug at an arms reach, while reclining in my LAZY BOY  lounger.  So what do you expect a Pickleball Junkie to say,  my favorite read is a "Book of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Hamlet or Macbeth, or maybe Playboy or Hustler ?  Are they still even being published  ?

A BALL, A BALL,  MY KINGDOM FOR A BALL!  Richard The III, Shakespeare's own with a minor subjective change.  Just imagine, if Willie, and his fans, back in the days when knights were bold, had played pickleball.  and a ball fell from the Queens pocket and landed on the court while a game was in play.  What would have happen ?

According to the 2018 Revised Pickleball Rulebook, Section II, OTHER RULES. II.H "ITEMS ON THE COURT," "If any item a player is/was wearing or carrying lands on his/her side of the court, unless the item lands in the NVZ as a result of a volley, the ball remains in play even if it is hits the item that fell onto the court. 

Thus the "Queen" who dropped her spare ball onto the court outside the NVZ, is not charged with a fault,  even if it is struck by the game ball.

However just like most of the cantankerously worded pickleball rules, a contrarian rule could be elicited byt person of wise council, who would  declare a "DISTRACTION," Rule .11.j. and 11.j.1.  if  the opponent of the player who dropped the ball, and was about to play the ball when the opposing player dropped the ball onto the court, and said opponent declared that the dropping of the ball was an intentional DISTRACTION, in non-officiated play, the players on the court would decide if a legal "DISTRACTION" occurred. 

The first part  of the above scenario did occur recently at an open play venue I attended. I did not witness the event, but I was informed afterwards by some of the players involved, and some bystanders who witnessed the event. I was told that there was some disagreement, but I was not told the final outcome of players decision. However,  I do not believe the DISTRACTION issue was or was not raised. 

There is some similarity of circumstances to this incident, as compared to a stray ball entering a live play court, that causes the play to stop.

SO WHAT SAY YOU MY LEARNED CCPB FRIENDS, has this ever happened to you, and if so, how was it resolved ?