The Bandeja Magazine Issue 1

ISSUE 1 MAY 2022 

TIA 

Norton 

GB’s shining star 

takes aim at the top 100 

Kevin Palmer 

on Jurgen Klopp’s 

winning weapon 

Padel elbow 

Cooler than tennis elbow 

but just as painful! 

iPadel league 

finals 

Padel Tribe UK 

talks NOX ML10 Pro Cup

The Smarter Way to Run Your Academy or Club 

TECH BUILT 

FOR GREAT 

COACHES. 

The Smarter Club System 

Runs on Autopilot 

Puts the Coach at the Core 

Eliminates Receivables 

Let kids challenge you, 

the Coach. 

Coach Mike Barrell 

Founder Evolution Kids Tennis 

www.bounx.com 

PADEL | TENNIS | SQUASH | FITNESS 

...ANYWHERE #GREATCOACHINGMATTERS

thebandeja.com 

contents// 

Issue 1 / May 2022 

AUXETIC 

TECHNOLOGY 

SHAKE UP THE COURT 

Feel the power. Designed for experienced players who are seeking more power, the 

oversized, diamond-shaped Delta racquet series has been upgraded with the new Auxetic 

construction for sensational feel. Shake up the court with the new Delta. 

#ShakeUpTheCourt 

Cover Story 

24 The girl with good hands 

welcome 

6 Editor’s Comments 

News 

8 Team GB in Vegas 

9 11 courts for Derby 

11 New London league 

12 University challenge 

14 Roland Garros 

18 New court openings 

INTERNATIONAL 

10 Kuwait embraces padel 

16 Padel at the AO 

COMMENT 

14 Padel Pussy asks for a news reset 

22 Kevin Palmer: Padel phenomenon 

FEATURES 

28 Cut-out-and-keep guide to padel 

30 The REAL history of padel 

36 #PadelTribe UK 

42 Inspiring Yorkshire women 

44 Coaching: basics for beginners 

46 iPadel Winter League finals 

PRODUCTS 

33 New products 

HEALTH 

38 Padel elbow 

CLUB NEWS 

40 The only way really is Essex 

48 Round-up of club news 

ON COURTS 

50 Lighting: it’s not you 

24 16 

#Padeltribeuk 

Equipment reviews & discussion from a padel geek 

@the_bandeja 

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any responsibility nor be held accountable for any factual errors contained within. We make 

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available from external sources. All rights reserved. 

22 

.COM/PADEL 

4 thebandeja.com the UK padel magazine - May 2022 

5

editor’s comment 

Emma Kimber 

Editor 

The Democratic 

Party of Padel 

Welcome to The Bandeja, the UK’s first magazine 

dedicated to the rather brilliant game of padel 

and the many thousands of people playing it 

up and down the country. 

Apparently there are some 90,000 of us, 

with 15,000 people playing every month. 

Worldwide it’s believed there are eight 

million participants - roughly equivalent to 

the population of a small African country 

(Togo, to be precise).And it’s growing, 

exponentially in some countries. 

The Bandeja has been in the making for 

about five months and in that time the 

UK padel scene has changed massively, 

with a huge number of new clubs and 

courts being announced and opened, 

including at the Queen’s Club. Foreign 

companies and operators have spotted 

an opportunity and are investing heavily 

alongside home-grown entrepreneurs 

vying with them to identify and sign-up 

sites for new courts. 

At times it feels like a modern day gold 

rush. In the scramble to secure sites, be 

the biggest name in a city or bring padel 

to a new area, millions of pounds are 

being poured into new and reinvigorated 

sporting facilities. And for that reason 

alone it is, quite simply, fantastic. 

And, amazingly, all this is happening 

somewhat under the radar. When we 

began The Bandeja journey so many 

people hadn’t heard of padel. Or worse, 

they thought they had and asked if you 

ever fell in, or got cold. Er no. It’s padel, not 

paddle boarding…..or they confused it with 

pickle ball, which I’m sure is great but it is 

not padel. Now when I mention padel there 

is a flicker of recognition, perhaps thanks 

to national press coverage, the increased 

number of facilities and buzz around the 

sport that is infectious and building. 

The beauty of padel is perhaps summed 

up in three words - accessible, inclusive 

and fun. Apart from a racket you don’t 

need special kit and almost all courts 

(bar the very small number that operate 

a private membership) are accessible 

without membership, making it truly 

democratic. Because it’s doubles, court 

costs are split four ways so an hour or so’s 

play is affordable for many people. 

More often than not most players can 

get a rally going in their first session. If 

you’ve played racket sports previously 

then it’s a cinch. And super addictive. It 

has the potential to shake-up the sporting 

landscape, attracting players of all ages, 

abilities and backgrounds to courts in 

ever-more inventive locations that are 

right on their doorsteps. 

I love padel because it’s great fun and 

I really like hitting a ball hard every now 

and then. I’m not going to set the world 

alight with my play but that’s sort of the 

point - there is room for everyone and 

there’s nothing better than a good rally 

at any level. Walk past almost any court 

during recreational play and you’re likely 

to hear laughter or banter. There’s is no 

better advert than that. 

Our mission at The Bandeja is to 

showcase all that is brilliant about padel 

in the UK (and further afield), inspire 

people to play and love being part of 

an amazing community. We want you 

to be involved - send in club news, your 

favourite videos of padel shots, questions 

you want answered about the game 

or equipment, topics you’d like to see 

Emma Devine 

Designer 

The Bandeja team 

Emma Kimber 

Editor 

emma@thebandeja.com 

Catherine Larrad 

Consultant 

Emma Devine 

Designer 

Advertising 


Launch sponsors 

PadelShack / Playtomic 

covered, pictures of your friends doing 

daft things on court etc. We are, together, 

Team Padel and all questions, story ideas, 

comments or submissions are welcome. 

It’s fair to say that this project probably 

wouldn’t have happened without the 

help and support of a few rather amazing 

people, to whom I am more 

than grateful. So take a bow Catherine 

Larrad, Bob Smith (of our launch sponsor 

Padel Shack), Jo Buchanan-Smith (of our 

launch sponsor Playtomic), Ian Colligon 

(iPadel), Minter Dial, David Capper (Padel 

Tribe UK) and the boys down at Padel 

United in Maldon, especially Richard Smith 

and my first coach Kai Woodgate. And 

Katie Weiner. You’d said I’d like it! 

Emma 

Emma Kimber 

Editor 


6 thebandeja.com 

“ 

It’s great to be part of this amazing and booming sport. Since 

opening we’ve gone from strength to strength thanks to the people 

of Harrogate and the excellent Playtomic platform. 

” 

Stuart Perrin. Surge Padel Harrogate 

Call our UK team now on 07340 528 866 

www.playtomic.com

News 

News 

No mingle singles! 

Small(er), beautiful and a record 

breaker – this is believed to be the UK’s 

first* singles padel court, just finished 

by Pro Padel Courts for a private client 

in Oxfordshire. Compared to a doubles 

court it is 6m rather than 10m wide, but 

with the same length of 20m. Which 

means that singles is probably harder 

work than doubles given that each player 

has to cover 60m 2 rather than 50m 2 . And 

hit every ball. Anyone for doubles?! 

*Liverpool FC has a ‘standard’ padel court 

but there’s a suggestion it also has a singles. 

If you know let us know! 

StarVie boosts 

production 

Spanish padel racket manufacturer 

StarVie is extending its factory near 

Madrid to enable it to produce 15,000 

rackets a month. See how it’s done 

here: click here 

Equality in WPT 

International Women’s Day in March saw 

the World Padel Tour (WPT) announce 

equal prize money for men and women, 

with the prize pot at women’s tournaments 

increasing by 250% for Challenger events, 

178% for Open and Masters and 160% for the 

Master Final, which the WPT described as 

‘unprecedented’ increases. 

takes on the world in Vegas 

Well done to the GB team who 

represented their country at the 

recent Electrolit Seniors World Padel 

Championships in Las Vegas, taking 

on some of the best players in the 

world and recording great results 

during the six day team and 

pairs tournament. 

Almost 600 players representing 

32 national teams and 18 countries 

(including Spain, Argentina, Portugal 

and Uruguay) played more than 500 

matches during the event, which was 

hosted by the United States Padel 

Association under the authority of FIP 

and the American Padel Federation. 

breaking news... 

Brilliantly the GB ladies finished 8th 

overall in the team event. The GB men, 

who only played their first LTA national 

tournament last year, were up against 

stiff competition, finishing 15 th in the 

team tournament. 

In the individual pairings, Libby Fletcher 

& Claire Smith made it through to the 

quarter finals in the +35 years women’s 

doubles and Michael Gradon/Matt 

Lansley won through to the quarter 

finals in the +55 years men’s doubles. 

A huge well done to all the players. Full 

details of the championships in the next 

issue of The Bandeja. 

Just as The Bandeja was going to press Rocks Lane Padel, London, 

announced plans to develop two padel sites in Cornwall - The Point at 

Polzeath and Trevose Golf Club, Padstow (which should be open for the 

June Bank Holiday. Playtomic is the booking platform). Chris Warren, 

Rocks Lane co-founder, said in announcing the plans: “So pack your 

golf clubs, bucket & spade, surf board and now your padel racket!” 


Photo courtesy Trevose Golf Club 

Derby Calling 

We Are Padel has launched onto 

the UK scene with news that it 

is opening the country’s largest 

indoor facility in Derby, with 

another multi-court site to 

follow in Shoreditch, London. 

Both schemes revolve around 

Powerleague facilities; the company 

took over the Powerleague operation 

at Derby’s Pride Park in mid April with 

ambitious plans to have 11 indoor 

courts up and running in the next few 

weeks. Until then Harrogate’s Surge 

Padel will retain the title of largest 

indoor club, with six courts. 

We are Padel (a LeDap club) 

proposals are also progressing for 

the Powerleague site in Shoreditch, 

where it will have seven outdoor 

‘semi-covered’ courts. 

The company is pursuing a further 

25 potential new locations in England 

with the intention of opening up to six 

clubs this year and expanding into 

Scotland and Ireland in the future. 

We are Padel UK spokesman Rosco 

Muller told The Bandeja that their 

vision is to build a community at each 

of the locations, which will operate 

on a pay-per-play basis. “Our DNA 

is the personal touch, a premium 

experience and really connecting 

with the community. We are not a 

business that will just build clubs, 

the UK padel magazine - May 2022 

get a booking system in place, install 

electronic gates and issue QR codes. 

Our customers will receive a warm 

welcome from our team who will, 

if required, take them by the hand and 

into the world of padel,” said Rosco. 

Derby club manager will be 

Matthew Baker and his assistant 

Jennifer Truong. 

LeDap is owned by private equity 

company Triton and already 

operates some 100 padel centres 

and more than 800 courts across 

Europe and the Middle East. It has 

stated its aim to become the 

world’s leading platform to drive 

the growth, innovation, digitalisation 

and professionalisation of the 

game, making it ‘available to all’ 

and contributing to it becoming 

an Olympic sport. 

Have a lake or water frontage but no physical space 

for a padel court? Us neither! But if you do then checkout 

Flodel, a rather lovely floating padel court. It’s a 

collaboration between Swedish companies World Wide 

Padel and Pontech and can include spectator/lounge 

areas with a bar and cafe. Just don’t hit the balls out… 

Find out more about Tom Murray, the 

LTA’s Head of Padel, in Rob Salmon’s 

My Tennis Journey podcast. Rob chats 

with Tom about his early career, from 

teaching English to becoming a young 

tennis hopeful, and then going on to 

drive the growth of padel in the UK. 

www.serveandvolley.net 

It’s coming... 

A mini padel court, a racket 

specialist and racket sports brand. 

Full details in the next issue! 

Phew... 

we can all breath a sigh 

of relief. Garmin has 

made padel official by 

including it in the latest 

firmware update for its 

Fenix 6. Now we just need to 

work on Strava, since we all 

know that if it’s not on Strava... 

If you’re using it and comparing with 

other racket sports let us know, we’d 

love to see your stats. 

“If tennis is chequers, 

padel is chess. It is really 

a thinking person’s 

sport but the great thing 

about padel is that it is 

easy to learn and hard 

to master. 

” 

Lee Sponaugle, All Racket Sports 

9

News 

taking padel 

to their hearts 

New 

London 

league 

Swedish booking app Padel Mates has 

lived up to its name for two players who 

met and fell in love after arranging a 

game via the app. Larsa Gustafsson 

Brintler made a late booking to play at 

his local club in Sweden, slotting into a 

game with three women, one of whom 

was Ellinor Berglund. By the first serve of 

the match he realised he was hooked 

and the pair are due to marry. 

Court construction... 

Padel court construction is probably 

cheaper than you think and – because 

you can fit nearly three padel courts 

into one full-size tennis court – installing 

one makes economic sense. That can 

be 12 players instead of four in the same 

space using other club facilities and 

spending money at your bar! 

– Corrie Padel. 

Playtomic & GotCourts 

Playtomic has acquired GotCourts, 

a racket-sports platform operating in 

Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The 

deal gives Playtomic a strong foothold 

in Germany, the largest market for 

tennis in Europe, and allows the Spanish 

company to meet an expected surge 

in popularity of padel in the region. 

“Padel is, besides 

football, the best game 

I’ve ever played. I’m really 

addicted to it. You make 

big steps in a short 

period of time. It’s really 

fun to play. 

10 

” 

Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool FC manager 

Kuwaitis are embracing the padel boom, with what is thought to 

be the first ladies tournament held there recently and thousands of 

players downloading booking app Padel Mates to organise matches. 

Padel has been established in the 

country for little over a year but its 

popularity is gathering pace and 

driving the opening of new courts. 

For Padel Mates co-founder Daniel 

Dawood the sudden interest in the 

sport came out of the blue, with some 

3,000 app downloads in just two days. 

“It was very unexpected, we didn’t 

even know there were halls in Kuwait. 

After a few weeks we had added more 

than 40 halls to Padel Mates.” 

This prompted Padel Kuwait City to 

host a women’s-only tournament 

organised through the app. Club 

owner Dr Imad Dash said: “The first 

Americano tournament was an 

enormous success. We launched a 

‘Ladies Friday Challenge’ tournament 

which was an amazing experience 

with 12 ladies, most of them having 

never met before, flying from court to 

court with padel rackets in hand for 

two hours. The ladies stayed after 

the tournament, appreciating the 

social gathering and having fun. They 

exchanged techniques, tricks, secrets, 

laughs, and phone numbers.” 

Player Sarah Dashti said padel quickly 

‘reached the heart’ of Kuwaitis during 

the pandemic. And, because it is not 

dominated by strength, it is easily 

played by all ages. “The easiness of 

playing led to big popularity with 

Kuwaiti women. Padel is a fun sport 

that has a positive impact on your 

health. Seeing people move, be 

happy and have fun socialising is 

an amazing achievement for the 

people and the community. Padel 

Mates made it possible for us to have 

a wonderful women’s tournament 

where we had fun, met new players 

and built a great padel community.” 

And, of course, there’s a What’sApp 

group! 

thebandeja.com 

Live in the capital and want to play 

competitive league matches in the 

Greater London area? Then check-out 

Padel-London’s new box league at 

padel-london.co.uk/compete 

Devised by David Segura-Pravia of 

Padel London, the league is intended 

to give players aged 18+ years of all 

abilities the opportunity to participate 

in a league, with the freedom to play 

anywhere in Greater London at times 

agreed by all players. 

“I have been playing padel in London 

since 2018 in different locations and 

And our survey says… 

A Padel United survey has highlighted 

that people in London and the North 

West particularly are keen to see more 

padel facilities as the sport grows 

rapidly in these regions. 

And even in Essex, where Padel United 

UK is based and has three clubs 

(Maldon, Brentwood and Chelmsford) 

plus a club in Bishops Stortford, survey 

respondents identified that it can be 

difficult to get a game, particularly at 

peak times. 

“People in Essex seem overwhelmingly 

to feel that Padel United is doing a 

good job in providing a vibrant padel 

community with enough court time 


I always missed a friendly, 

organised league that would have 

allowed me and my friends to play 

in a more competitive way,” said 

David. “That is why I decided to 

create the box league.” 

The league is split into two regions 

(East and West), played in rounds 

- winter, spring, summer and autumn 

- and divided into ability bands 

to ensure competitive play. Entry 

is capped at 48 teams, with each 

playing five matches per round. 

Click here to join padel-london.co.uk 

and events to keep them happy 

– up to a point,” said a spokesman. 

“In other parts of the UK it remains 

hard to even find a game close to 

home; some of our survey respondents 

mentioned having to travel more than 

100 miles to access facilities.” 

Padel United research identified that 

players want facilities to have a cafe, 

equipment shop, good changing and 

bathroom facilities, all weather courts 

and decent access/car parking. 

The company is committed to 

developing the game throughout 

the UK, with London, Manchester, 

Just as us tennis players are 

getting to grips with picking balls 

off walls and sticking to our own 

side during service there’s another 

new concept landing – T30. 

Created by tennis enthusiast 

Mark Milne, T30 is a shorter and 

faster-paced scoring format 

starting from 30 all for tennis that he 

feels will work equally well in padel. 

www.thirty30tennis.com/rules 

Glasgow, Birmingham and Bristol 

key locations it wishes to invest 

in. As with many padel facility 

providers, it is scouting for sites. Its 

preference is to build 10+ indoor 

courts at each site, with news of its 

first major indoor venue expected 

to be announced shortly. 

Enjoying 

The Bandeja? 

Free sign-up is now 

open for Issue 2 

www.thebandeja.com 

11

News 

Game4Padel 

secures Cornish 

location 

Andy Murray-backed Game4Padel 

is bringing padel to Newquay 

having gained planning 

permission for two covered courts. 

Cornwall Council granted plans to convert one 

tennis court into two padel courts at Heron 

Tennis Centre. Building work was expected to 

begin immediately with a view to opening this 

summer. 

Heron Tennis Centre director Jon Askey 

said: “We are really excited about bringing 

padel to Cornwall. We have seen how 

quickly the game is growing across the 

country and believe it will be extremely 

popular in Newquay.” 

The plans had the full backing of Newquay 

Town Council, with councillors stating the 

scheme would ‘see the town benefit from the 

introduction of this widely inclusive sport’. 

Support 

Town residents also threw their support 

behind the application. One wrote: “Having 

played padel tennis numerous times it is a 

sport which can be thoroughly enjoyed by 

a complete novice but at the same time 

is very skilful for advanced players. I hope 

to be able to play locally rather than waiting 

until my next holiday in Europe.” 

Game4Padel co-founder and CEO, Michael 

Gradon, said: “In the past year there has 

been unprecedented demand for new padel 

courts around the country. We already have 

27 venues operating or in development and 

planning and plan to have at least 50 padel 

venues open by the end of 2022.” 

Game4Padel venues due to open this year 

include London Westfield shopping centre; 

Broxbourne Sports Club, Hertfordshire; Draycott 

Sports Club, Stoke on Trent; Liverpool Cricket 

Club and Dundee Forthill. 

Jon Askey, Heron Tennis Centre Director; 

Terry Askey, Heron Tennis Centre founder 

and Michael Gradon, CEO of Game4Padel. 

Varsity Padel 

The seeds of a national varsity padel league 

have been sown following the UK’s first Padel 

University Challenge between Edinburgh and 

Stirling universities. 

Hosted by Thistle Padel Club in 

Edinburgh, the match saw three teams 

from each university battle it out. 

Edinburgh emerged victorious with an 

8-1 win after some very close matches. 

Edinburgh Uni team captain Ali Gordon 

and teammate/match organiser 

Sam McKinney, said: “It was a great 

experience. There were lots of close, 

high-level matches across the day. 

We all really enjoyed it. Huge thanks 

to the Stirling guys for coming across 

to Edinburgh and to Game4Padel for 

sponsoring the event and hosting 

us at Thistle Padel Club. Looking 

forward to a rematch!” 

Game4Padel is on the look-out for 

universities and colleges to join its Padel 

University Challenge with the hope that it 

will lead to a national varsity league. 

Fit. and Healthy 

A new report - Safe and Essential - 

from ukactive has revealed extremely 

low rates of COVID-19 among people 

using fitness and leisure facilities during 

the pandemic. Data gathered from 

thousands of ukactive members across 

To register interest e-mail 

info@game4padel.com 

the UK showed that of 241,154,977 visits 

to facilities from July 25th, 2020, to 

February 27th, 2022, just 2,605 cases 

of COVID-19 were reported among 

visitors - an overall rate of 1.08 cases 

per 100,000 visits. 

12 thebandeja.com

News 

Off The Wall 

with Padel Pussy... 

It’s great to see padel getting national 

news coverage. A recent article in a 

broadsheet gave a whole page to 

discussion about the game. It had a 

focus on the business side of the sport, 

with really good, positive input from 

Christopher Wilkinson and Kevin McCollum 

of Padel4All, Simon Pearson of David Lloyd 

Clubs and Neil Morgan of JetPadel. 

I personally, however, would like to see 

a change in the narrative when journalists 

report on the sport. The growth of padel 

isn’t to the detriment of anything (notably 

tennis) and it’s definitely not the tennis 

equivalent of crazy golf (yes, that was 

one analogy) or played with over-sized 

ping-pong paddles. As for being the 

sporting version of Japanese knotweed? 

I rest my case. 

Padel is its own sport and a massive 

positive worldwide that’s bringing people 

of all ages into racket sports - and sport. 

Some of them may even switch to tennis, 

God forbid. It’s creating new careers for 

young people, re-invigorating sports 

clubs and facilities and bringing in foreign 

money. Hats off to all the clubs and padel 

facility providers for making this happen. 

The padel story is overwhelmingly positive. 

It doesn’t need comparing to anything 

else and we really must get the message 

across that it is not an easy sporting 

option and it is not less demanding of the 

player. Those ideas need scratching from 

the record. It may be easy to start but 

building skill, as with any sport, takes time, 

effort and patience. 

What do you think? Let us know here. 

Padel has been included in 

the 2023 European Games in 

Krakow-Malopolska, from 

21 June to 2 July 2023 

Game on GameCam! 

Want to analyse your shots after a coaching session or 

post-match with a beer at the bar? Then start lobbying 

your club to install GameCam. 

The high-performance sports camera 

records and live streams matches in 

broadcast quality as well as generating 

a slew of match stats via its built-in AI 

chip to help players identify strengths 

and weaknesses. Or simply tease their 

opponents or playing partner about 

unforced errors, time spent in the 

dead zone and the player who hit the 

least shots. You can even heat map 

movements around court. 

The video analytics and statistics 

feature has been developed in 

conjunction with professional padel 

players and coaches, according to 

GameCam CEO Ruud Smits, to ensure 

it extracts and delivers the data that 

players want. 

Starting from €950 including the 

wall mount 

www.gamecampadel.com 

Roland Garros to 

host top flight padel 

Padel is heading to its second 

tennis Grand Slam location 

this year with news that Roland 

Garros will host a world-class 

tournament in July. 

Just months after padel was showcased 

at the Australian Open (see page 16), 

the sport is heading to the Paris Premier 

Padel Major on July 11-17th as part of 

a multi-year agreement between the 

French Tennis Federation (FFT) and 

Premier Padel, the big-money rival to 

the World Padel Tour. 

Premier Padel is managed by the 

International Padel Federation (FIP) 

supported by the state-backed Qatar 

Sports Investments. The Paris event is its 

first major padel tournament in Europe. 

Gilles Moretton, president of the FFT, 

said: “The federation is proud to write 

padel history by teaming up with FIP 

and Premier Padel. This will propel padel 

to a new dimension and boost the 

French fervour for the discipline.” 

Luigi Carraro, president of FIP, said: 

“Padel is growing rapidly in France and 

we look forward to showcasing our 

sport at its best to new audiences in 

this spectacular venue – and to viewers 

all over the world.” 

Watch Premier Padel tournaments 

on Sky. 

Growing Padel in the UK 

www.ipadel.co.uk 

07765 403769 

ian@ipadel.co.uk 

14 thebandeja.com

international 

Padel scored a landmark achievement 

earlier this year with the addition of 

an exhibition court to a Grand Slam 

tennis tournament. 

The pop-up court attracted 

Maxime Cressey’s coaches 

Armand D’Harcourt and 

Romain Sichez, pictured 

with Mark Monjonell and Erin 

Purtle. Photo: Lee Bradshaw 

The Australian Open threw its doors 

open to the sport, hosting a pop-up 

court at Melbourne Park for the public 

to try it and watch exhibition matches. 

In the shadow of the Rod Laver arena, 

the court attracted a huge amount of 

interest, with organisers hoping it will 

drive engagement with the sport, 

described by AusPadel, the Australian 

Padel Federation as ‘the ‘T20’ of cricket, 

the ‘touch rugby’ of rugby, the ‘cross-fit’ 

of gym and the ‘five-a-side’ of football’. 

Tennis Australia, which has taken 

over national governance of the 

sport, hopes that within three years 

an international tournament will be 

played at Melbourne Park. 

Erin Purtle, who was involved in the 

initiative, said the Australian Open 

was a ‘huge success’ for padel in 

Australia. “Before the AO if you asked 

anyone if they’d heard of padel they 

would think that you were talking 

about stand-up paddle (boarding) 

Matt Thomas 

but since the AO everyone knows what 

padel is! It was on the news and in 

newspapers getting great coverage. 

The problem now is that 

we have so few courts to promote 

the sport further, but there is plenty 

of activity and many rumours about 

new locations opening in Australia.” 

At present the country has just 

24 public courts at six clubs in 

Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and the 

Gold Coast - making it a prime target 

for development. Fifteen courts are 

expected to open this year. 

European padel operators have 

expressed interest in expanding their 

operations down under and there 

are a growing number of 

home-grown organisations 

looking to invest in facilities. 

Brit Matt Thomas, along with Matt 

Barrelle (now president AusPadel), 

is credited with introducing padel to 

Australia in 2016 having seen it played 

in Spain while working as a tennis 

coach there. Matt T is now ranked 

Australia’s top player and both he 

and Matt B represented the country 

at the recent Seniors World Padel 

Championship in Las Vegas. 

16 thebandeja.com

New Courts Opened 

Garon Park, Southend, Essex (Padel4all) 

3 canopied, 1 outdoor show court 

Withdean Sports Complex, Brighton, 

East Sussex (Game4Padel) 

1 outdoor court 

Ipswich Sports Club (Game4Padel) 

1 pop-up court (see page 47) 

Surbiton Racket & Fitness, Surrey 

2 outdoor courts 

Surge Padel, Harrogate, North Yorkshire 

6 indoor courts 

The Welsh Padel Centre, Cwmbran 

2 canopied courts with space for a third 

Padel United UK, Chelmsford, Essex 


Lowther Gardens, Lytham St Annes, 

Lancashire 

2 floodlit padel courts 

Hurlingham Club 

3 courts, two floodlit 

Solihull Arden Club, Birmingham 


Roehampton Club, London 

2 floodlit courts 

Coming Soon 

Derby (We Are Padel) 

11 indoor courts 

The Queen’s Club, London 

2 floodlit courts 

Oxford (MVP Padel) 

3 courts 

Lockleaze Sports Centre, Bristol 

(Padel4all) 

4 covered floodlit courts 

Dundee (Game4Padel) 

1 court 

Lethamhill golf course, Glasgow 

(Game4Padel) 

3 covered courts 

Heron Tennis Centre, Newquay 

(Game4Padel) 

2 courts 

Island Padel, Jersey 

3 indoor, 2 outdoor floodlit courts 

Planning Granted 

Ripon Tennis Centre 

2 floodlight covered courts 

South Essex Golf Club, Brentwood 

(Padel United) 

3 courts – 2 covered 

Grappenhall Village LTC, Oxford 

(Game4Padel) 

2 covered courts 

155 & counting... 

Keeping up with new padel clubs and courts opening 

around the UK feels, at times, like herding cats; public and 

private courts are going up at a rate of knots and more 

are being announced weekly. 

Official LTA figures give some insight 

into this – in September last year 

it quoted 114 courts (37 covered, 

77 outdoor), which had risen to 

155 courts (93 covered, 62 outdoor) 

at 70 venues as of March 1st this year. 

Since then there have been a 

flurry of new facilities opening and 

development plans announced 

both from ‘established’ big players 

(Padel4all, Game4Padel and Padel 

United to name just three) and new 

names to the UK sector – LeDap’s We 

Are Padel plans for the Powerleague 

site in Derby (11 covered courts opening 

in a matter of weeks) is a major step 

forward for the sport here. And it has 

plans – which we can only presume 

will be comparable – for a site in 

Shoreditch, London. 

Until Derby’s We are Padel opens, the 

impressive and new Surge in Harrogate 

remains the largest indoor facility 

to date (six courts). It has quickly 

built a strong following and has the 

powerhouse that is Nicky Horn very 

successfully driving engagement of 

women in the game (see page 42). 

Special mention must also go to The 

Welsh Padel Centre in Cwmbran and 

its driving force David Cornwell, who 

deserves huge credit for his hard work 

in developing a brilliant facility that’s 

attracting players from a wide area. 

It’s also worth mentioning that there 

is a growing market for private courts 

(ie in your back garden or perhaps 

estate) for those lucky enough to have 

the space and funds. These courts 

aren’t, to our knowledge, included 

in any official figures. One court 

developer told The Bandeja that they 

are doing more installations for private 

clients than they are for clubs and 

organisations. So for anyone struggling 

to get court time it could be worth 

making friends in high places... 

London bastions of Britishness, 

The Hurlingham Club and Queen’s Club, 

are both flying the flag for padel by 

adding the sport to their facilities. 

Hurlingham members have had the use of one 

court for seven years but it was getting heavy 

use and didn’t allow the club to build a padel 

community. In addition, club sports executive 

Danny Sitton told The Bandeja that they were 

examining sports trends and identified padel’s 

huge growth. The club invested in three new 

courts (two floodlit) and within weeks has 

reported usage on a par with its tennis courts. 

Over at Queen’s, two new courts with floodlights 

are in progress, a sure sign that the sport has 

arrived. Next stop Wimbledon?. 


the UK padel magazine 

19

undercover 

in wales 

Helen Rossiter (left) 

and Jane Sunnucks. 

The first covered padel club in Wales has 

opened in Cwmbran with two undercover courts 

and room for a third, immediately tripling court 

provision in the country. 

The Welsh Padel Centre has been 

developed from the site of derelict 

tennis courts, transforming an unused 

area into what has been described 

as a ‘fantastic community resource’ 

which also includes a 3G five-a-side 

football pitch. 

David Cornwell, director of Padel 

Centres Ltd, is behind the scheme. 

He began playing padel in Spain but 

found that his nearest home court 

was, initially, in Winchester, a 230 

mile round trip. That changed with 

the installation of a padel court at 

Windsor Lawn Tennis Club in Penarth 

last year. 

He believes there is real demand for 

the sport locally: “It’s a great location 

– we had people from Bristol come 

to play on our open weekend and it’s 

easy for people from Cardiff, Newport, 

Monmouthshire, Caerphilly as well as 

Torfaen to play. There’s latent demand, 

we just need to encourage people.” 

Centre ambassador Paul Jenkins is 

a point in case: “I used to drive to 

Birmingham two hours once a month 

to play in a tournament. I’ve played 

in Ireland. I’ve played in Scotland and 

various parts of England. So to have 

it on my doorstep - what a fantastic 

opportunity for the people of south 

Wales,” he said. 

The development has the support 

of Tennis Wales. Chief executive 

Simon Johnson said: “Padel is growing 

right across the UK and seeing further 

investment into Wales is superb 

for the game.” 

The centre includes changing 

facilities/equipment hire and 

plans to organise coaching 

sessions and tournaments. It is fully 

automated with an online booking 

system in place. 

Charity organisation the HWB 

Torfaen has taken responsibility 

for the management and running 

of the site in partnership with the 

community council. 

Dan Oliver, HWB Torfaen chief 

executive, said: We are delighted 

with the development. What David 

and his team achieved during 

the pandemic is nothing short 

of remarkable. What a fantastic 

resource he has brought into the 

area for the community to enjoy.” 

enjoying 

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20 thebandeja.com

kevin palmer 

Andy Murray and Peter Crouch 

kevin palmer 

The padel 

phenomenon 

an unstoppable force 

by Kevin Palmer 

From 30 padel 

courts in 2018 to 

more than 150 

now, there’s no 

stopping the 

march of this 

highly addictive 

game across the 

UK. Here Kevin 

Palmer charts its 

rise and rise, from 

being a ‘delicious 

secret’ to Klopp’s 


and now the 

favourite sport 

of thousands 

of players. 

Roll the clock back to 2018 and 

there were just 30 padel courts 

in a UK market still largely 

unaware of the sport’s potential 

- but how that has changed. 

Back then, the sport we all know and 

love so well was a delicious secret 

being kept by the padel hotbeds 

such as Spain and Argentina, but the 

landscape was about to be hit by 

a revolution that would change the 

sport forever in Britain. 

The Lawn Tennis Association’s 

decision to hire UK pioneer Tom 

Murray to front up their padel division 

and add the sport to its family was 

a decision that has proved to be 

pivotal to the stage where we are 

now seeing a growth that appears 

to be unstoppable. 

Since the day Sport England, Sport 

Scotland and Sport Wales officially 

recognised the sport as a discipline 

of tennis, to the vast investment 

in padel courts from a variety of 

ambitious backers, there is a sense 

that we are on the cusp of something 

unique with a sport all The Bandeja 

readers share a passion for. 

‘New’ sports rarely get a platform 

of this magnitude to launch 

themselves, but padel is being driven 

by a momentum that appears to 

be unstoppable. 

The loans being offered by the LTA to 

install padel courts across the country 

are changing the way tennis clubs are 

viewing the sport, with an appreciation 

of the financial benefits of including 

a padel court on your list of offerings 

now at the forefront of decision making 

when padel courts are installed. 

Premier League fans 

In addition, padel has been given 

the kind of star power publicity that 

could never have been provided by 

an expensive PR campaign. Take the 

example at Liverpool Football Club, 

where manager Jurgen Klopp and his 

assistant Pep Lijnders discovered the 

sport when they were on a pre-season 

training trip to Tenerife. 

At first, Klopp and Lijnders were 

bemused by the sport they saw as an 

‘extended version of table tennis’, but 

that stance quickly changed when they 

got padel rackets in their hands and 

experienced what so many of us have 

felt as we quickly found a new love. 

“We built a court for us at the training 

ground and now we are playing this 

game almost every day,” Lijnders 

confirms. “The game has been a nice 

distraction from our daily routine. 

Sometimes we come up with the best 

ideas to solve issues during these 

games. We sit down on a bench in 

between two sets and we discuss 

solutions for football problems. In 

fact, we do that a lot. When you are 

constantly playing matches or doing 

top-level training sessions every day, 

there is no time to wind down.” 

Such an endorsement from Liverpool’s 

leaders is just one of many that 

have put padel on the map. Two-time 

Wimbledon champion Andy Murray 

has invested in a padel business 

and former Scotland rugby star 

Max Evans and one-time England 

captain John Terry are regular padel 

rivals when at their holiday homes in 

Quinta do Lago, Portugal. 

Few sports looking to make a 

breakthrough in a crowded marketplace 

have promoters of that calibre driving 

the message, but they are not alone in 

appreciating that this is a sport ready 

to move to another level. 

PSG’s pro tour 

Confirmation that the Qatari owners 

of French soccer giants Paris 

Saint-Germain are ready to take 

padel to a new level by launching a 

pro tour that will offer big prize money 

may just be the next phase of a 

journey laced with promise. 

The building blocks required to build 

a phenomenon rarely slot into place 

quickly, yet the latest participation 

Sports journalist Kevin Palmer will be 

writing for The Bandeja on a wide 

range of padel topics. Some of you may 

know him from his brilliant coverage 

for Tennis365 and he’s worked with Sky 

Sports, ESPN, Yahoo, Goal.com, Planet 

Sport and femalefirst.co.uk. His Twitter 

account has been named the most 

influential in Irish sports media for the 

last four years. We are delighted to 

have him onboard! 

figures for padel in the UK confirm 

89,000 active players are now playing 

the sport and 15,000 of those are hitting 

the courts on a regular basis. 

While the pandemic has stunted 

plans for court development across 

the country, those participation 

numbers are a triumph for a padel 

community that is growing at a pace 

that suggests the future is only 

heading in one direction. 

Addictive 

The Bandeja readers don’t need to be 

told how gloriously addictive padel is 

and we all have a duty to get our friends 

on court to experience the sport that 

sets our collective pulse racing. After all, 

we are all the groundbreakers in taking 

padel into the mainstream in UK sport. 

New sports rarely 

“ 

get a platform of this 

magnitude to launch 

themselves, but 

padel is being driven 

by a momentum 

that appears to 

be unstoppable. 

” 


23

The interview 

The girl with 

good hands 

...and her gap year goal 

Taking a gap year usually means travelling, volunteering, or 

simply taking time out between ‘A’ levels and university to firm up 

on a career path. Exam pressure is off and there’s a more relaxed 

time stretching out ahead. 

24 

“I never get fed up, I love it so 

much. I enjoy training, I enjoy 

playing, I enjoy competing, 

I enjoy every aspect of it.” 

Image courtesy the LTA 

That is, of course, unless you are 

Tia Norton, the first British woman 

to compete on the World Padel 

Tour and a regular in the GB Women’s 

team, assuming captaincy for the World 

Championships in Doha last November. 

And all, brilliantly, achieved before and 

just after she turned 18. 

With a university place safely secured 

(interior architecture at Nottingham 

Trent) Tia has taken a gap year, setting 

herself a clear goal – to break into the 

world top 100. It’s an aim that remains 

despite unforeseen interventions 

from Brexit and FIP’s break from the 

WPT, more of which later. 

The Leamington Spa teenager’s ever 

growing list of padel achievements 

have been well documented in the 

press, where she has been described 

as ‘trailblazing’, ‘a bright future star’, 

‘shining star’ and ‘leading-light’. And 

all with good cause. In her six years on 

the international circuit she has racked 

up a raft of notable firsts, her career 

highlight being a match win on her first 

appearance in the World Padel Tour 

in Malaga last summer with Swedish 

partner and fellow teen Amanda Girdo. 

“Amanda & I went in to the tournament 

with completely no expectations, it was 

the first WPT event for both of us. We 

got a wildcard and were like yeah, let’s 

just go in, enjoy it and see how it goes. 

I think, because we put no pressure on 

ourselves, we came out with such a 

good achievement. I remember going 

back to the hotel room after we won 

the first match and I was like this is it, 

this is what I want to do for the rest 

of my life!” said Tia. 


The newcomers defeated Romanian/ 

Spanish duo Raluca Sandu and Noemi 

Aguilar to make it through to the second 

round of pre-qualifiers, where they beat 

Italian/Spanish pairing Carlotta Casali 

Vannicelli and Raquel Segura Aguilar to 

secure their spot in the qualifiers, where 

they went head-to-head with Spaniards 

Nuria Rodriguez and Marina Guinart 

España, losing 6-2 & 6-2. 

Having tasted WPT success, Tia is now 

focussed on getting matches and 

ranking points under her belt to achieve 

her goal of joining the world’s top 100 

players. But forces beyond her control 

have thrown spanners in the works, 

notably Brexit and WPT’s break with FIP. 

“Amanda and I played tournaments 

last year but I had to come home 

because of the 90 day restriction in 

Europe due to Brexit. Because I wasn’t 

able to travel and do tournaments my 

ranking dropped. This year I managed 

to secure a Swedish permit visa which 

meant I could travel in Europe freely 

for six months.” 

The second issue is the division of WPT 

and FIP following the International Padel 

Federation’s decision to launch its own 

world tour in opposition to WPT, as Tia 

explained: “By playing FIP tournaments 

you could earn WPT points to make 

Tia has recently 

renewed her 

collaboration 

with Nox 

it easier to get into tournaments. 

But now FIP has created its own 

professional league it is quite hard 

to play the WPT because there is no 

other way of getting points. If you 

are a new player there is, essentially, 

no way on to the professional circuit 

at the moment. There is a rumour 

that they are going to create smaller 

tournaments for these points but they 

haven’t announced anything yet.” 

Coaching 

Tia is now partnered with Spanish 

player Carla Fitó and the pair are 

playing FIP tournaments and hoping 

to gain wild card entries into WPT 

tournaments. Her current schedule 

sees her travelling between home and 

Tia has taken a gap year, setting 

herself a clear goal - to break into 

the world top 100. 

25 

Photo courtesy Nox

The interview 

The cricket 

connection 

Her sponsors 

Tia is sponsored by NOX Sport, 

MATCHi, Padel Shack, Bynx 

and Game4Padel. 

Michael Gradon, CEO of 

Game4Padel said: “Tia is the 

future bright star of the padel 

world and we are delighted to 

support her on her journey.” 

“We’re really excited to have 

Tia joining our team. Everybody 

knows about the qualities she 

possesses on court. Together 

with an influential ambassador 

like Tia, we hope to spread 

the joy of padel across the 

UK, introduce new people to 

the sport and help her on her 

amazing journey,” said Anna Ek, 

commercial partnership and 

event manager at MATCHi 

Tia said: “I’m so grateful to my 

sponsors for the faith they have 

put in me at this early stage in 

my career. I’m excited about 

what we can achieve together. 

They support me in so many 

ways and I am determined to 

repay that in the best way I 

can - by delivering on court!” 

Image courtesy World Padel Tour 

Barcelona, where she trains with new 

coach Juan Alday, an Argentinian who 

previously coached world No 1 Marta 

Marrero and is also now working with 

French No 1 Alix Collombon. 

“Day to day I am hanging around with 

these people and am able to train with 

Alix, the world No 19, which is amazing,” 

said Tia. “And everyone is so nice. I have 

a very solid relationship with my coach 

Juan even though we’ve only been 

working together for a few months. 

He said at the start when I went out to 

Barcelona ‘Tia everyone we have in this 

training camp is a family’. Everyone was 

welcoming, friendly and hanging out all 

the time. The support and friendship in 

padel is huge and it definitely has an 

impact on your game.” 

Juan has Tia working on two aspects 

of her game - thinking and leg work: “He 

has made me realise that padel is a lot 

more simple than you think,” she said. 

“Before I used to think that I had to play 

the most perfect shot all the time in 

order to win a point. But Juan said ‘Tia, 

you do realise padel is literally just get 

the ball in’. The main focus they are 

teaching me is to play padel with an 

idea, so which shots I want to play, when 

I want to play them and how I want the 

point to finish. Basically using my brain 

a bit more. I have all the shots but the 

difference between a good player and 

an incredible player is when to use those 

shots, how to use them, etc. 

“One of the biggest physical 

aspects I am working on is using my 

legs a lot more. I have always been 

used to using my arm and my wrist 

so coaches now are telling me to move 

my legs and use my whole body in 

every shot.” 

It’s no doubt hard work but Tia is not 

deterred: “I never get fed up, I love it 

so much. I enjoy training, I enjoy playing, 

I enjoy competing, I enjoy every aspect 

of it.” 

Dad Jonathan on Tia 

“Tia immediately connected with 

padel after her transition from tennis, 

competing at an international level 

from the age of 12, both in the junior 

and women’s senior team at World 

and European championships. Her 

success on the World Padel Tour 

opened many opportunities. As parents 

we have been there every step of the 

journey and have travelled thousands 

of miles. Her success, commitment 

and determination has made her the 

successful British athlete she is now.” 

Quick fire questions... 

Q: Her dream padel partner? 

My dream partner would have to 

be my favourite player Marta Ortega. 

I absolutely love her game style and 

Image courtesy the LTA 

have had the pleasure of meeting 

her and seeing how kind and amazing 

she is off the court. I also managed to 

experience playing against her in the 

last European championships, and 

wow. I really understood the level of 

her game and would love to be able 

to share the court with her again one 

day. Hopefully next time on the same 

side of the net! 

Q: Her interests outside padel? 

I love anything to do with arts and 

crafts, I’m quite a hands-on person. 

I also really enjoy baking and cooking 

which I have definitely picked up from 

mum as she is rather talented in this 

area. I also have a tendency to learn 

random skills as well in my free time 

– juggling, card tricks, headstands. 

It really varies… 

Q: Her advice to young players 

aiming high? 

Whatever goal you set yourself, don’t 

let anyone of anything stop you until 

you get there. Your mind and body 

are a lot more powerful than you 

think so never limit yourself, always 

chase your dreams. Every second 

you work for them, the closer you 

are getting to achieving them. When 

I started playing padel my dream 

was to play the World Padel Tour. 

I am now living my dream because 

I never gave up or let anyone tell 

me otherwise. 

If Tia’s older brother 

Jamieson ever wants 

to score sibling 

brownie points he 

could point out that if 

it hadn’t been for his 

cricket prowess her 

prodigious padel talent 

may have remained 

undiscovered, at least 

for a little longer. 

Tia would watch Jamieson play 

cricket in Warwick every week. The 

cricket club also had tennis courts 

so, aged seven, Tia and her dad 

Jonathan gave it a try. 

It was the fledgling start of a tennis 

career. Within a couple of years Tia 

was scouted to join a club in Coventry 

to train and compete more seriously. 

Within four years of picking up a 

racket she was playing in the national 

team finals at the National Tennis 

Centre in Roehampton, coming third. 

It was then that a former tennis 

coach, Matt Thomas, invited her to 

play padel at a club in Birmingham 

(Padel Nation). Tia said: “Initially I 

was very frustrated. Obviously the 

back wall is a huge issue for tennis 

players because you instantly move 

backwards; the movements are 

complete opposites. It is like when 

people smash, instantly you would 

start moving back but you forget you 

have a glass wall behind you.” 

Despite her frustrations, Tia proved 

a natural and just a few weeks later 

trialled for the GB team heading 

Brother Jamieson on Tia 

“Tia has been dedicated to the sport 

from the outset. I am so proud of her 

many achievements at such a young 

age. I have enjoyed watching her grow 

and develop her skills over the years 

and it’s great to support her along 

the way. I can’t wait to see what’s 

next for her future. If only she was as 

passionate about doing the recycling 

and emptying the dishwasher as her 

padel that would be great.” 

to the Junior World Championships in 

Mexico, securing her place in the U14s 

squad. There she competed in the 

team event and the open tournament, 

reaching the quarter finals despite 

having only been playing for two months. 

“I came home and was continuing with 

tennis and padel but it got to the stage 

where I was playing tennis shots in 

padel and padel shots in tennis. I was 

like right, I need to decide what I want 

to do. It wasn’t the easiest decision 

but I decided to continue with padel. 

I definitely feel like I made the right 

choice,” she said. 


27

Feature 

What is padel? 

A cut-out & keep guide 

for Friends & Family 

by Emma Kimber 

We all love padel and know 

that you don’t get your feet 

wet when ‘padelling’ (yes, I 

have been asked), that it is not difficult 

to stand up when doing it (yes, I have 

been...) and no, I don’t freeze my 

extremities if I padel for several hours 

(yes, I have...) You might deduce from 

these questions that I live near the 

coast, so perhaps everyone doesn’t 

get asked exactly the same ones. 

But I’m pretty sure that all of us, at 

some point, have talked about it and 

seen the glazed look descend upon the 

face opposite. It’s padel parenthesis; 

we know exactly what we are talking 

about, know that the conversation is 

very much complete and makes total 

sense but for the sake of our friend/ 

colleague/family member/random 

public person we have to add the 

brackets and explain. 

So we’ve compiled this cut-out-andkeep 

guide that you can hand out to 

those bemused people to help them 

understand our passion and what it is 

all about. It’s not exhaustive and is likely 

to be a work in progress, so if there’s 

anything you feel needs adding let 

us know (emma@thebandeja.com) 

and we can update it for future issues. 

What is padel? 

A racket sport that is a cross between 

tennis and squash and almost 

exclusively played as doubles. Like 

tennis it has a net and service boxes 

and, like squash, you can play the ball 

off the side and back walls. 

A padel court is much smaller than 

its tennis cousin. Depending who you 

talk to, you can get two or three 

padel courts (some people even 

quote four) into the space occupied 

by a tennis court. We think four is 

pushing it but if you don’t need the 

run-around space required by WPTstandard 

pathletes (padel athletes, 

usually Spanish, often attractive) 

and the tennis court has a little extra 

space around it, then may be. 

Players use a bat or racket. For the 

moment the jury is out on which one. 

Purists argue that rackets have strings, 

so therefore it has to be a padel bat. 

But bat sounds a bit, well, basic. We 

quite like the approach of Neil Bilton 

at BoblPadel who suggests backet, 

which is completely in-line with the 

new padel vocabulary we are 

developing. I am, however, taking an 

executive decision on the matter (our 

Padel Tribe feature excepted) and 

My padel racket - 

for a review see It’s 

Tribal, pages 34-35 

enshrining in The Bandeja style 

guide that it is a racket. With a ‘ck’. 

And the balls. These look like tennis 

balls (and smell like tennis balls) but 

are fractionally smaller due to lower 

pressurisation (around 11psi compared 

to about 14psi for tennis balls). All the 

materials and yellow fuzz are the same. 

Which makes tennis players feel very at 

home for the nano second before it hits 

the wall and rebounds, leaving them 

flailing like a fish out of water. 

Is it pickleball? 

No. Just no. 

The court 

Looks nothing like a tennis or squash 

court apart from the net, service 

boxes and sides, which actually makes 

it sound quite similar. It’s not. A padel 

court is enclosed and the back portion 

is glazed. To the sides of the net is metal 

mesh – the cage. The playing surface 

is, we understand, known as ‘turf’ (some 

people also call it carpet) and comes 

in different colours, pink included. Very 

Katie Price. Turf is surely a misnomer 

because it’s not at all grassy nor alive 

but more akin to astro turf and can be 

supplied in differing curliness and length. 

Sanding the surface is normal - we’re 

not sure why, we’ll ask. More sand means 

slower play. We think. 

Equipment 

If you have a racket you can play 

(most places will loan or rent you one). 

You’ll obviously be more comfortable if 

you have decent trainers and a bit of 

lycra or sweats on but it’s not completely 

necessary. I played at Rocks Lane in 

Chiswick and there was a chap on the 

next court who had just come from 

what I presumed to be work and was 

in jeans and a shirt. His shoes wouldn’t 

have given the best grip but he played. 

However, there’s a lot to be said for 

getting padel-specific trainers – the 

herringbone sole is really different 

to tennis shoes/normal trainers and 

designed to grip sanded turf to prevent 

turf surfing. If you’ve got clay court shoes 

they are almost the same but obviously 

not quite the same according to padel 

shoe manufacturers. I’m still in my tennis 

Nikes but know the day is approaching 

when I will need totalk to myself about 

some spanky new padel pumps. 

How do you play? 

Much the same as tennis but court 

positioning is different and you can use 

the walls. There’s no over arm serve, 

which makes padel immediately more 

accessible, easier and less intimidating. 

Service always starts from the right, as 

in tennis. The server must bounce the 

ball behind the service line and hit it 

diagonally cross court into the receiver’s 

service box. If it hits the wire mesh either 

before or after bouncing the serve is out. 

If it hits the glass walls before bouncing 

it is out. If it hits the turf and then the 

glass it’s in – and quite often a winning 

shot if played with pace, spin or into the 

corner. The serve can also just plop it 

into the receiver’s box to bounce nicely 

for your opponent to pick their return 

shot. Hit the net during service and it’s 

a let, unless the ball is out (ie hitting the 

cage). Once the serve goes in it’s just 

a case of returning the ball and making 

sure it always hits the turf before hitting 

the glass or the cage. That’s the golden 

rule, turf first unless your opponent 

volleys. Scoring is exactly the same as 

tennis and you change ends on odds 

during matches. 

Court positioning 

A basic of padel is that you almost 

always move with your partner up and 

down the court and side-to-side. The 

only time your partner is at the back 

of the court and you are at the net is 

during your service game. Generally. 

Other than that you should be roughly 

lined-up and scuttle back and forth and 

side-to-side with each other. Positioning 

for service is another story and, given 

this guide is for the uninitiated, we don’t 

need to complicate matters. What is 

agreed is that both sides want to take 

control of the net. And avoid no-man’s 

land (between the white line and the 

net) because your opponents will pick 

on you if they see you there. 

The Fridge 

Getting a bit technical now, this is 

perhaps more suited to What is Padel 

Pt 2. But it’s worth knowing so that you 

can recognise (when you are playing 

social padel only) opponents with ‘ck’ 

at the end of their names. These people 

Have we missed anything? 

Or you want to comment? Then write 

to me - emma@thebandeja.com. 

We are working on having a prize 

for the star letter so you never know, 

you might get lucky and win a ball 

or something. 

will pick on the weaker player, excluding 

the stronger player - so putting them in 

the fridge. In social padel it’s not a nice 

tactic and is neither big nor clever. 

Where can I play? 

Courts are popping up all over the 

country but there are still huge chunks 

of the UK going without. We call them 

peprived (padel deprived) and we very 

much feel for people in these localities. 

To find out if you’ve won the padel 

lottery (plottery, of course) check out 

www.ipadel.co.uk as well as 

www.lta.org.uk 

Why is it so popular? 

Sometimes we feel there aren’t enough 

superlatives to describe padel. It’s easy 

to play, really fun, addictive and very 

social (there are four people sharing 

quite a small space, waving their arms 

around and diving for balls, it’s fun, 

competitive and very compelling). Padel 

devotee Lee Sponaugle, of All Racket 

Sports in the States, probably best sums 

it up: “It is really a thinking person’s sport 

but the great thing about padel is that 

it is easy to learn and hard to master.” 

So, if any one tells you padel is easy, 

put them in the fridge. 


29

feature 

Feature 

The tennis-mad beauty queeN 

who sparked a racket 

sport revolution 

The history of padel is well-documented 

and correctly attributed to Mexican millionaire 

Enrique Corcuera. But there’s more to the 

story than this, with its early development 

driven by love amidst the jet-set. 

Victor Dial was an early adopter 

of the game, mixing with the 

Corcueras and partnering Henry 

Kissinger on their neighbour’s 

court. Here he gives his account of 

the game’s inception and growth. 

Padel tennis is the best of all the 

racquet games: better than lawn 

tennis, better than real tennis, 

racquets, squash, platform tennis (often 

referred to as paddle), pickleball, 

and table tennis. 

The story begins in 1969 with Enrique 

Corcuera, an elderly Mexican 

gentleman and his young wife Viviana, 

Miss Argentina 1964 and beautiful, 

energetic, vivacious. They were living 

on the outskirts of Acapulco in a large 

house with extensive gardens, including 

a tennis court. Viviana retained a tennis 

coach to train with her several times a 

week while her husband was enjoying 

a siesta or away on business. All went 

well until one day Enrique announced 

he’d bought land nearby in Las Brisas, 

where he intended to build a house. 

When he showed her the drawings 

Viviana noticed at once there was 

no tennis court - impossible because 

of the steep slope on which most of 

the properties in Las Brisas were built. 

There followed, so goes the story, an 

emotional exchange best summarised 

as ‘no tennis, no Viviana’. To calm the 

situation, Sr Corcuera ordered his 

architect to find a solution. 

The architect proposed a miniature 

court built into the hillside, using a 

retaining wall on the uphill side and 

stilts to support the platform on the 

downhill side with walls and strong 

wire fencing all around for safety. 

It would be expensive, but in Enrique’s 

eyes, worth it. 

The couple developed specific rules 

for their game which were enshrined 

in the official ‘Paddle Corcuera’ rule 

book: a tennis-like net in the middle 

with marked service boxes. They used 

tennis balls and wooden paddles (à la 

platform tennis) to slow the ball, with 

the option to play off the walls, as in 

squash. The server had to bounce the 

by Victor Dial 

Enrique Corcuera with his wife Viviana. 

ball once and hit it no higher than his/ 

her waist. Lawn tennis scoring would 

be used, but ping-pong scoring was 

also allowed. Padel tenis [sic] was 

born. Enrique usually gets the credit for 

inventing padel but I believe Viviana 

deserves the lion’s share; without her 

intransigence the court and game 

would never have seen the light of day. 

It rapidly became apparent that playing 

doubles was more fun than singles, 

so Viviana touted her new game to 

her entourage and guests. One of 

their neighbours was an extravagant 

Texan couple, Sandra and Ricky. They 

owned a large house which they 

filled with glamorous house guests 

and memorable parties. The property 

had a luxurious padel court built to 

Enrique’s design. In 1973, Prince Alfonso 

Hohenlohe, a charming Spaniard visited, 

and Viviana proudly showed him their 

creation. Alfonso enjoyed the game so 

much that he decided to build a replica 

at his Marbella Club Hotel in Spain, 

carefully noting the measurements 

before he left. I know all this because 

Alfonso and Viviana each told me. 

Julio Iglesias 

Prince Alfonso built Spain’s first court 

at his club in the spring of 1974. There 

were many guest celebrities, including 

the Julio Iglesias family, who started 

playing. But it took a while to convince 

hard-core tennis players to grasp the 

fun of it. I admit I was slow to adopt it, 

in spite of the urging of Alfonso and 

others. When I tried it some months later 

I quickly became an addict. From then 

on, when in Marbella or any other place 

where there was a court and three 

other players, all I wanted to do was to 

play padel (as with my sons Minter and 

William, both excellent players). 

A couple of years later friends invited 

me to stay in Las Brisas and Ricky 

and Sandra, the Texans, invited me to 

play padel on their elegant court. The 

court was lit with Hollywood-style klieg 

lights for night play when it was cooler 

(except for the lights!). Alongside the 

court there was an open but covered 

and air-conditioned gallery complete 

with plush leather sofas. White-gloved 

waiters served refreshments. 

Kissinger connection 

My partner on the first of the many 

games I played there was Dr Henry 

Kissinger, former US Secretary of State, 

vacationing nearby. He seemed to 

enjoy playing with me, and to my 

surprise called regularly to ask me to 

be his partner: “Viktor, do you vant [sic] 

to play today?” I was flattered by his 

interest in me (there were surely other 

choices) and asked why: “Because I 

vant to vin.” I enjoyed his wit. 

On one occasion while I was (as usual) 

running all over the court retrieving 

balls, he was (as usual) trying mostly 

to stay out of the way. Inspite of my 

best efforts, a ball went past me and 

hit him full on in the stomach. “Zat’s 

de best shot I’ve made all day!” he 

said, triggering gales of laughter from 

the elegantly dressed, bejewelled, 

and neatly coiffed spectators, mostly 

admiring and fawning females. 

Following our match I would usually 

collapse in a heap of sweat and fatigue 

– completely ignored except for one 

of the waiters. Kissinger, however, was 

surrounded by the ladies, who listened 

breathlessly to his every word. 

Argentine take-over 

Prince Alfonso’s padel courts were the 

first in Spain. Now there are thousands. 

It’s said to be the second most popular 

sport in Spain after football – more 

popular even than lawn tennis (in the 

home country of Rafa Nadal). The game 

itself has advanced beyond recognition. 

When we first started playing there were 

no pros to teach us, we just picked it up 

the best we could and the court and 

the rules have evolved. Now technique 

and strokes specific to the game have 

been perfected and there are many 

outstanding teachers and players. The 

first country to adopt padel massively 

was Argentina in the 1980s, no doubt 

inspired by Viviana’s many connections 

there. But with proper backing and a 

Victor Dial with Henry 

Kissinger and Baroness 

Sandra di Portanova. 

more solid economy, Spain took over in 

terms of number of courts and players. 

Today, the Spanish and Argentinians 

dominate the top rankings of both the 

female and male professionals. 

Thank you, Enrique and Viviana for 

inventing the game. Thank you, Prince 

Alfonso for bringing it to Spain. And 

special thanks to you, Mr Secretary, 

for being my most famous and 

enthusiastic partner. 

About The Author 

Yale graduate Victor Dial spent a 

30 year career in Europe as a senior 

executive with Ford Motor Company 

and Automobiles Peugeot. He 

was also President of the Board of 

Governors of the American Hospital of 

Paris for 17 years and is now enjoying 

retirement in Gstaad, Switzerland, 

and Baltimore, Maryland 

References: 

Enrique speaks about the 

development of the game 

https://auspadel.com.au/blogs/ 

padel-history-enrique-corcuera/ 

An interview with Viviana 

https://www.youtube.com/watch 

?v=BIrOHCsvF0s&ab_channel= 

WorldPadelTour 

A recent tribute to the Corcuera’s 

influence on the game 

https://blazetrends.com/the-acapulco 

-exhibition-a-tribute-to-the-inventor 

-of-paddle-tennis/ 


31

New products 

Metalbone HRD 3.1 

www.padelshack.com 

RRP £325 

Take a look at the adidas Metalbone range, which uses an innovative and unique 

system of six weighted screws (12g in total) allowing players to vary the weight and 

balance of the racket. Left on, the balance of the Metalbone will be in the middle 

low part of the racket, giving more control. Removed, the balance is raised up 1.5cm, 

delivering more power. The head-heavy Metalbone HRD 3.1 incorporates what adidas 

describes as an ‘octogonal structure’ for greater rigidity and power, has a diamondshaped 

design to assist with speed and power and an EVA high memory core. 

objects 

of desire 

adipower Light 3.1 


RRP £250 

The 2022 edition of Martita Ortega’s racket, 

the adipower Light 3.1, maintains the round 

format with low balance and is a good 

choice for players looking for a lighter weight 

racket that is hi-tech, manoeuvrable but 

with power. Its EVA soft energy rubber core 

combines balance and comfort and the 

dual exoskeleton technology and aluminised 

carbon composition assists with power. 

Salming Padel Shoes 


RRP around £100 

Be a Rebel on court with Salming’s new range 

of padel shoes, designed to deliver speed, 

grip and stability. The lightweight shoes – 

for men & women – have been specifically 

developed for padel. Expect flexibility, 

support and reduced shock impact thanks 

to a patented design. We love the Swedish 

company’s ‘no nonsense’ approach and its 

website statement ‘if you believe gimmicks in 

your products make you a better athlete, then 

Salming is not for you’. Boom! 


33

New products 

new products 

padel products 

see page 45 for 

10% OFF 

men’s Barefoot 

Wanderer double 

layer shorts 

www.flanciactivewear.co.uk 

RRP £36.99 

Drop Shot’s new Cristal 3.0 from its Ambition 

line has ‘smart hole’ technology to optimise 

its impact zone for a larger sweet spot. Cork 

cushion grips and silicone grip technologies 

help to reduce vibrations and the racquet has 

what Drop Shot describes as a clear ‘offensive 

cut’ thanks to a pronounced diamond format, 

with balance shifted towards the tip. 

www.padelcorner.uk 

RRP £144 

Cristal 3.0 

Check out Head’s new series of Delta 

oversized, diamond-shaped racquets 

which incorporate its new Auxetic 

tech on the bridge, providing better 

feel, even on balls that don’t hit the 

sweet spot. The Delta Pro (formerly the 

Delta Hybrid) is aimed at advanced or 

professional level players looking for 

maximum power. Weight is 375g and 

the racquet has a slightly higher head 

balance. The Delta Motion delivers power 

but in a lighter racquet (360g). The Delta 

Elite (360g) has a softer hitting surface 

and is ideal for medium-high level players. 

The series is complemented by the EVO 

Delta, for beginners, and the Delta Junior. 


RRP from £75 to £260 

The Delta series 2022 

Slazenger padel 


RRP Bag £120 / Racket £180 

Slazenger Padel is a relatively new entry to 

the market, launching two years ago. Take 

a look at the new Slazenger Padel SLZ Light, 

a round-shaped racket weighing in at just 

345g. It has a soft EVA core and graphite 

surface with ‘head light’ balance. Suitable 

for beginners to medium players who prefer 

a lighter racket. Then you’ll need a bag to 

store it safely. The Vibora racket bag comes 

in white or black. 

Channel your inner Marta Marrero 

through her new range of apparel 

for Black Crown. Choose from 

leggings, skirts, a hoodie, vest tops, 

dress and even a racket bag, all colour 

co-ordinated (utilising black, green, 

blue and white). The sportswear is 

designed to be quick-drying, light 

and comfortable. We’re particularly 

loving the blue/green combo. 


RRP from £45 

Marta Marrero 

Cartri Volcano Teide 


RRP £415 

Cartri has released a raft of innovative and 

high quality new rackets. The covetable 

Volcano Teide (355/375g) is one of three in its 

premium range, offering medium to advanced 

players aggressive yet stable performance 

from its hybrid shape. With a Kevlar 6K carbon 

frame, hard-wearing 12K carbon hybrid face, 

black evasoft rubber core and a rough face it 

is packed with features for comfort, durability 

and precision. Head balance is medium/low 

and what is described as a ‘new hole drilling 

system’ is designed to minimise vibrations 

and improve shots. 

From the award-winning British 

company Flanci, chaps don’t have 

to miss out on funky and functional 

fitness wear. Flanci have a range of 

men’s double layer technical shorts 

that are cool, quick drying and 

form-fitting. They have a lighter 

over-layer to provide extra wicking, 

a zipped back pocket and two 

thigh pockets. 

This popped up in The 

Bandeja’s LinkedIn feed. 

We’re not majorly into ‘girly’ 

colours and we know very 

little about Fes padel but 

we found this racket rather 

alluring. And their website 

says ‘you’ll walk in as a 

customer... you’ll walk out as 

a friend’. What’s not to like? 

www.fespadel.es 

RRP €249.00 

FEs padel 


35

It’s Tribal 

It’s Tribal 

#Padeltribeuk 

Equipment reviews & discussion from a padel geek 

Nox ML10 Lightweight 

Nox ML10 Smartstrap 

Nox ML10 Luxury 

Padel Tribe grew out of an Instagram page - Essex Padel 

- set up by David Capper to talk about games he played, 

usually at Prested Hall, Padel United in Maldon and David 

Lloyd Chigwell. As the account’s popularity grew a name 

change was required and Padel Tribe UK was born and 

has gone from strength to strength. 

Padel Tribe UK has gone from 

strength to strength, discussing 

the padel scene. People say padel 

is a cross between tennis and squash, 

but where similarities do exist, padel 

is padel and has its unique shots and 

tactics. The beauty of padel is the ease 

to start playing, difficulty to master and 

that it quickly becomes very addictive. I 

am totally addicted to padel. 

I’ve been given the opportunity to talk 

about all things padel - equipment, 

the club scene etc. Being a total 

padel geek this is a great opportunity. 

Remember though, these are my 

opinions and thoughts. Padel rackets 

or bats, (rackets have strings, bats 

don’t?) come in a myriad of shapes 

and designs. If you are from a tennis 

background (I’ve played tennis and 

squash) some brands might be 

familiar, such as Head or Wilson, but 

there are many other great Spanish 

and Argentinian brands in the 

marketplace - Bullpadel, Nox, Drop 

Shot and Royal Padel to name a few. 

For this launch issue of The Bandeja 

I thought I would review one of the most 

popular and best-selling bats in the 

history of padel: the Nox ML10 Pro Cup. 

They say you never forget your first 

love and, in terms of padel, the ML10 

Pro Cup was the bat I used, loved 

(and still love) for a number of years! 

The beauty of this bat is that it can 

be used by all levels of player. The Pro 

Cup is synonymous with one of the 

most popular players in the history of 

Padel, Miugel Lamperti, who assisted 

with its development and design over 

the last 10 years. My son Harry has 

also used the Pro Cup; it’s ideal for an 

advanced junior player. 

When recommending a bat I advise 

looking for comfort and ease of use. 

No one wants to spend £££ on a bat 

that is difficult to use and ends up 

injuring your arm. Tennis elbow is 

prolific in padel! 

The ML10 Pro Cup is the round shape, 

meaning the balance is closer to 

the hand, providing better control of 

shots. The sweet spot (the area on 

the face that is optimal to hit the ball) 

David (and his Nox Pro Cup) with 

World Padel Tour player Pablo Lima. 

is large and the unique HR3 rubber core 

and metallised fibreglass in the face of 

the bat provide a ton of comfort, 

power and durability! 

For 2022 Nox has introduced its 

‘SmartStrap’ system which allows you 

to personalise your racket, improve 

hygiene and safety by easily 

replacing the strap - there’s a loop 

at the end of the racket. Simple but 

effective. Watch Miguel Lamperti 

demonstrate it here. 

So how does the Pro Cup perform 

on court? From the back of the 

court in defence, the round shape 

and lower balance make it easy to 

move into the right positions. It has a 

relatively large sweet spot, provides 

a sense of security in the defensive 

game and makes it easy to play 

forehands and backhands. The lob 

can be played with confidence to 

hit the ball high and deep. 

Transitioning up the court from 

defence to attack the Pro Cup, 

with its great manoeuvrability, 

makes playing consistent volleys 

and bandejas with confidence 

straightforward, providing the control 

to find the gaps and place the ball 

exactly where you want it. 

Being a control focussed bat, 

viboras and smashes are played 

with surprising power, providing the 

ability to finish the point. 

If you watch Lamperti play you will 

see him smash out of the court with 

ease (but he is a top world pro!) 

SUMMARY The Pro Cup is an all 

round performer. It provides comfort, 

playability and durability. This is why it 

is the best-selling padel bat ever and 

why I recommend people should try it. 

Final note, the ML10 is also available 

as an Ultra Light version with similar 

properties and the latest release is the 

new ML10 Pro Cup Luxury which features 

all the great properties of the original 

Pro Cup but with added technologies 

such as additional anti-vibration 

features and a rough finish on the 

face to provide additional 

grip and spin on the 

ball, all in a slightly 

updated mould. 

#padeltribeuk 

“You may hear of 

rackets being diamond, 

teardrop or round in 

shape, and each has 

its benefits, but for 

club level players my 

recommendation would 

be a round shaped 

racket. 

” 



37

health 

health 

Padel elbow 

by Neil Bilton 

Tennis elbow (or lateral epicondylitis to give it its medical 

name) is a common affliction for padel players. 

The BoblPadel boys... 

Richard (Bowles) and I were at school together, where we both fell 

in love with squash. We were lucky enough to live near The Triangle 

leisure centre in Burgess Hill when the padel court was built there 

and instantly fell in love with the game. We now split our time 

between The Triangle and the pop-up court at Withdean Sports 

Complex in Brighton. We play with friends and like to travel to other 

courts for coaching and to meet new players. 

We set up Boblpadel (www.boblpadel.com) to help spread the 

word about padel and give people a choice of the best rackets 

on the market teamed with excellent customer service. We’ve 

also established the Padel for School scheme to encourage more 

children into the game by providing rackets to them. 

It is both annoying and really 

painful, as Neil Bilton discovered 

when he developed the condition. 

Here he charts its onset, his 

recovery and gives his layman’s 

advice for dealing with it. 

Let’s start with a disclaimer. I am not 

a doctor or a physio or a faith healer 

but I have, and still do occasionally, 

suffer from tennis elbow. All advice 

below is from a layman and drawn 

from experience. 

If you haven’t suffered from tennis 

elbow you are one of the lucky ones. 

If you have, then you know all about 

that innocuous pain which isn’t really 

there until you pick up a scalding hot 

cup of coffee and your elbow screams 

so loud you spill it on yourself, or when 

turning the key in your front door hurts 

so much you think about living in the 

garden for the rest of your life. 

The onset is sudden, the pain is very, 

very nasty and the length of the 

healing process is just too long to 

be acceptable. 

Within the group of guys I play with, 

70% have experienced it at some point. 

We all come from different disciplines 

of racket sports so it’s not a specific 

sport that makes you susceptible. 

Both Richard and I have had it with 

differing levels of pain (but obviously 

mine was significantly worse than his). 

What is padel elbow? 

It’s basically inflammation of the tendon 

where the forearm muscle connects 

to the elbow joint. It normally happens 

because of an injury or overuse of 

the muscle which then won’t move 

properly and so the tendon needs to 

compensate (tendons aren’t really 

designed to stretch and move around 

like muscles). Eventually the tendon 

rubs the bone entry point and becomes 

inflamed. Then it just hurts. A lot. 

It can be caused by lots of different 

things. From shoulder mobility, tight 

forearm muscles, a wrist strain or 

even an impact injury to a finger. 

We have experienced the onset from 

a multitude of innocuous events. 

From scraping moss off a roof, trying 

to start garden equipment or just 

clipping a padel ball off the frame of a 

padel racket. You feel it, you hate it, you 

pray it will just go away and then you 

mentally cry a little. 

How we dealt with it 

Richard and I are different people, 

we behave differently, sometimes 

impatiently, sometimes aggressively 

and sometimes stupidly. We have both 

gone down the physio route, do this, do 

that and REST. We have gone down the 

YouTube self-heal route - do this, don’t 

do that and REST. And we have gone 

down the enforced lockdown route, do 

nothing (while getting fat) and being 

www.boblpadel.com 

“ 

It’s the same thing as 

tennis elbow but just that 

” 

little bit cooler. 

forced to REST. To be fair the latter one 

did work somewhat but it’s not that 

practical on a long term basis. 

Rest definitely helps. And it gives you 

no idea of when to start playing again. 

Many a false start has occurred which 

immediately puts your 2-3 week rest 

period back to square one. 

What can you do when 

padel elbow strikes? 

Get some ice on it when you feel it or 

when you aggravate it. While that bag 

of peas is slowly defrosting, think about 

your rehab period because right now 

it’s a waiting game. When you decide 

to go back to padel you are probably 

going to need a pressure strap. We 

have tried several and we have found 

that the main thing is that it should be 

reasonably tight (but obviously don’t cut 

your blood supply off!) The cheaper ones 

will come loose quite often during play 

and will need to be tightened regularly 

but everyone has different budgets and 

that, obviously, will affect your choice. 

The strap effectively shortens the muscle 

and ‘locks off’ the point at which the 

tendon moves and hurts. Always 

follow the strap instructions. We found 

straps useful as a rehab tool after the 

REST period. We do not think a strap 

should be bought as an alternative 

to the REST period. 


39 

Warm-ups 

This is something we should all do but 

they generally seem to amount to the 

last 30 seconds before going on court, 

having arrived 30 seconds before that. 

Amongst our friends what seems to 

count as as a warm-up can be as 

short as a couple of (tight) hamstring 

stretches or maybe one knee-clicking 

squat. Then it’s straight onto court to 

smash balls at each other as hard as 

we can across the net. 

What does help? 

I now get to the court 15 minutes early 

and have made it part of my padel 

routine. I do some simple arm swings, 

shoulder rotations and then begin to 

mimic certain padel shots but without 

the racket. I then add the padel racket 

and repeat the process with the added 

weight and air resistance that the 

racket brings to the movements. 

Neil Bilton & Richard Bowles 

I lightly stretch my shoulders and wrists 

against a wall. All this takes me about 

5mins and since I started doing it I’ve 

had no issues with tennis elbow. Richard 

was doing this with me until his elbow 

got better and he stopped. He now has 

tennis elbow again and is into his two 

weeks off while he RESTS it. 

Ps: I think we need to claim the name 

for ourselves. Going forward I will say 

that I have previously suffered from 

‘Padel Elbow’. It’s the same thing as 

tennis elbow but just that little bit cooler. 

Kind of the same as Richard and me, we 

are both men of roughly the same age 

but I am just that little bit cooler! 

Here is what the NHS says about tennis 

elbow. Click here. Here is a useful 

Exercise PDF for stretches. 

Enjoying 

The Bandeja? 

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the chance to WIN 

Padel Shack vouchers. 

www.thebandeja.com

The only way 

really is Essex 

Sam Jakes 

Centre manager 

Essex is famous for many things but 

perhaps not so well-known for being a 

padel hotspot; if you start in Chelmsford 

and travel in an easterly semi-circle there 

are more than 12 courts within a relaxed 

and fairly rural 30 to 45 minute drive. 

It’s fair to say that several of the 

locations wouldn’t fit the business 

model of operators needing a large 

population to support investment in 

new facilities. Padel United, for example, 

has a thriving four-court club in Maldon 

(population 22,000), and Prested Hall 

near Kelvedon (population under 5,000) 

has an established padel following. 

Building the padel brand further in 

the county is Padel4all, which neatly 

bagged itself Southend and a sizeable 

conurbation of just under 190,000. 

The newly-minted city has a strong 

history of tennis – the local newspaper 

reported it as once having so many 

tennis clubs ‘it was difficult to count 

them’, so there’s strong precedence for 

rackets sports (squash and badminton 

included) in the area. 

But this is not entirely what bought 

Padel4all to Southend, where it opened 

an impressive three covered and one 

show court centre last last year at 

sports hub Garon Park. Its interest in the 

location grew from Padel4all founder 

and chief executive Christopher 

Wilkinson’s connections with the trust 

running Garon Park and conversations 

about under-used tennis courts on site, 

which he suggested would be perfect 

for padel and generate income for 

the facility. “We started talking about 

putting padel into Garon Park in 2018,” 

said Christopher. “It had four indoor 

tennis courts plus the outdoor courts, 

which had fallen into disrepair. It was 

these that we discussed and agreed to 

lease long-term, allowing us to apply 

for planning permission.” 

He described this process as ‘tortuous’ 

and the overall journey ‘very long’ but 

the end result is a brilliant community 

padel facility that Christopher hopes 

encourages players of all ages and 

abilities to take to the court. 

“We want to bring this fantastic new 

sport, which is social and fun for all 

the family, to the widest possible 

community,” he said. “We have been 

talking to the tennis clubs and they 

are very keen. We feel it complements 

rather than detracts from them, 

especially during the winter when they 

can play under cover with us.” 

Padel4all has funded its centres 

- it also operates in Basset Down, 

Swindon, and opens a new facility in 

Lockleaze, Bristol, in July - through 

family and friends, raising in excess 

of £3 million so far with another 

funding round planned. The aim is to 

open 20 centres in the next five years, 

each with an average of four courts 

achieving around 75% of revenue from 

court fees, 20% from membership and 

the remainder from retail. For Southend 

and Basset Down it has partnered 

with court supplier and installer Padel 

Tech to install AFP Courts. 

A key driver is to make the sport and 

its facilities accessible and the 

company is working hard to encourage 

as wide a range of users as possible. 

At Basset Down, manager and head 

coach Steve Yeardley has been 

welcoming school groups for regular 

training sessions and young people 

with Downs Syndrome play every 

Saturday morning. “Within 10 minutes 

of playing the sport, they were having 

rallies over the net. The excitement 

was a joy to watch,” said Chris. 

Paralympian tennis player Louise Hunt 

is also a regular at Basset Down and 

Garon Park hosted a group of adults 

from Pholk Care, which arranges 

activities to help build confidence, 

self-esteem, social skills and 

Technology plays a key role in court 

accessibility – Padel4all uses a code 

entry system to its sites and bookings 

automatically trigger floodlights to 

switch on and off as required. Some 

600m of armoured cabling at Garon 

Park supplies power for the lights, CCTV, 

access system and match cameras; 

Padel4all has installed GameCam which 

allows players to download and watch 

their matches back post-match. 

community inclusion for its clients. 

The club has quickly established itself 

as an integral part of the community, 

running tournaments, offering coaching 

courses for all ages and launching 

Miss Hits sessions for primary age 

girls during a Girl Power Hour. 

User numbers are impressive, with 

membership in excess of 250 players 

within six months of opening. 

The future 

Christopher and his team have 

identified 15 or so potential new sites 

and are currently in negotiations with 

landowners or going through planning 

for these. And, with so much of the 

country still without padel courts, there 

are plenty of locations to develop. 

www.padel4all.com 


41

coaching 

Coaching, coffee 

& competing 

Sports coach Nicky Horn is passionate about inspiring 

women of all ages into racket sports. She started with 

squash and racketball in her home county of Yorkshire and 

then found padel and has since encouraged more than 

150 women to take it up. Here she talks about her winning 

formula for getting females of all ages on to court (and 

yes, it does involve What’s App groups!) 

I 

can’t believe how many females are 

loving padel. It’s just so different to 

tennis and squash. Tennis is a great 

game to play and watch but it’s difficult 

to take up if you didn’t learn at school 

or as a junior. Squash is a smaller sport 

and not as accessible - and it’s tough 

to learn with the small ball. Padel is 

much easier and you can feel success 

so much sooner. Within minutes most 

people can hit the ball and start feeling 

like a tennis player and a sportswoman. 

I coach squash at Harrogate Sports 

& Fitness Centre, which also has a 

padel court. We set up a What’s App 

group for ladies that I met at the club 

and I started coaching them in padel. 

Within months we had six hours of 

coaching scheduled per week, 

70 ladies on What’s App and lots of 

social games followed by coffee. 

The next club - Rawdon Golf & Lawn 

Tennis Club - was slightly different. 

Tucked away behind houses, fewer 

people walked past and saw its padel 

court. We advertised and got our 

‘early followers’ and then we followed 

a similar pattern to Harrogate. Many 

tennis players tried it and, again, the 

What’s App group took off. This time 

we booked in six week coaching 

sessions to work around school 

terms and soon had 50 women on 

the group. To build on the coaching 

we organised a team match against 

the Harrogate club - 16 women in each 

team – with drinks, mince pies and 

laughs after. It was a great success 

and a big draw. The club has created 

mini leagues and social events which 

has resulted in great mixed padel 

events at the club. 

Last but definitely not least is the 

area’s newest padel facility and the 

UK’s largest indoor padel centre - 

Surge Padel in Harrogate. It has six 

indoor adidas courts on the first floor 

of a repurposed office building. It’s 

awesome. Some two months in and 

more than 50 female players have 

flocked to try this ‘new’ sport. They 

immediately engaged in coaching 

to build their confidence, then in the 

social and then as a community 

building their own network of friends. 

We’ve had a 24 women tournament 

and what we believe to be the biggest 

inter-club padel match so far in the UK 

– a 24 strong squad against Rawdon 

(see page 48). 

By my reckoning that’s more than 150 

females loving padel in less than two 

years. The key points I take from this 

is are that we females engage with 

padel if we have a coach ready to 

help us improve, encourage the social 

element of the game and arrange 

matches as we progress. 

42 thebandeja.com

coaching 

feature 

Coaching 

Basics for beginners 

For The Bandeja’s first coaching 

feature we are starting from the 

beginning, with padel coach 

Ewan Ramsden talking through eight 

fundamentals to help new players to 

win more games. 

1. Play with better players 

This works for all sports and padel is 

no different. If you play with stronger 

players your game will improve. You’ll 

be forced to work harder and have 

to contend with tougher balls, which 

means learning to cope and return the 

balls. And don’t give up when balls go 

past you – think about what you could 

have done differently. 

2. Take regular lessons 

Booking time with a decent coach 

will help improve your technique and 

make your shots more consistent, 

stronger and faster. It may also help 

avoid injuries, including the dreaded 

padel elbow. 

I’d advise a one-on-one session 

each week plus matches to put your 

learnings into practice. 

3. Learn the walls 

This is key to improving your game, 

If you don’t learn how to play balls 

off the wall and constantly volley you 

will improve but only to a point. The 

wall can be your best friend, helping 

you defend and attack and making 

opponents easier to defeat. When 

faced with picking a ball off the wall 

stay relaxed, let the ball come in front 

of you and don’t take it too early. 

4. Learn positioning 

Two absolute basics are to avoid no 

man’s land (the area between the 

service line and the net) and get to 

the net at the right time. If you find 

yourself in no man’s land it will be 

difficult to volley and tricky to get a 

ball off the wall. Getting to the net at 

the right time (always after serving) 

will allow you to play winning volleys 

and overheads. 

5. Racket grip 

I advise using the continental grip 

for accuracy, control, power and 

technique. I demonstrate it in the 

video or you can find it by ‘shaking 

hands’ with your racket. Some players 

make marks on their racket handles 

to ensure their hand stays in position 

while they are learning this grip. 

6. Get the right racket for 

your game 

This is really important. A good coach 

or racket supplier will be able to 

advise, after which it does come down 

to personal preference. 

7. Play consistently with 

consistency 

If you play intermittently it will be 

difficult to improve, so set a target 

of consistently playing (at least once 

a week for example) and then aim to 

play the percentage game, so 

keeping the ball in play as much as 

possible rather than going for winners 

and missing. Let your opponents 

make the errors. 

Consistency - a good tactic is to 

hit the ball down the middle. If you 

get it wrong you still have a good 

chance of the ball going in. You 

will also find that if you constantly 

hit down the middle opponents 

will slowly move in and gaps in the 

corners and down the line will open 

up for finishing the point. 

8. Take the pace off your shots 

Don’t hit the ball too hard! It’s very 

tempting, particularly if you come 

from a tennis or squash background, 

but playing more slowly and hitting 

less hard but with consistency will win 

points. This is especially so if 

you play more experienced players 

- hitting hard balls that bounce off 

the glass will be an easy pick for them 

rather than a winner. Learn to play 

slow and soft and prioritise learning 

spin over power. 

As well as being a padel 

coach, Ewan has established 

EverythingPadel, an online padel 

racket and equipment store. 

Follow him on YouTube here 

10% off 

until 30 June 2022 

use code: 

PADEL10 

www.flanciactivewear.co.uk 

44 thebandeja.com the UK padel magazine 

@flanci @flanciactive @flanciactivewear 

45

Growing Padel in the UK 

www.ipadel.co.uk 

07765 403769 

ian@ipadel.co.uk 

Photos: James Thorp 

iPadel winter 

league 

booked the sun 

at finals weekend 

Summer league 

The iPadel summer league season has already 

started, with some 20 clubs and 44 teams competing 

through to August, with the finals in September. The 

season is being sponsored by @playtomic, 

@Royalpadel, @thebandeja. 

For more information and to get prepared for entering 

the 2022 winter league, visit www.ipadel.co.uk 

The iPadel winter league drew to 

a close with players from around 

the country gathering for the 

tournament finals at The Limpsfield 

Club in Surrey. 

The winter league is part of iPadel’s 

national club leagues which are open 

to club-level players (suggested 

ratings of between 3.0 and 5.0) 

wanting to play competitive matches 

against other local padel clubs with 

the draw of a national final. Fifteen 

clubs and 34 teams participated in five 

men’s and two women’s leagues. 

The finals weekend marked a thrilling 

ending to the season, with excellent 

play by all teams, including a number of 

players preparing to head off to Las Vegas 

for the Seniors World Padel Championship. 

Battling it out for the women’s teams 

were players from Rocks Lane Chiswick, 

David Lloyd Bushey, Esher and The Bourne 

Club, Farnham. The eventual winners 

were the Rocks Lane ladies with the 

runners-up David Lloyd Bushey. 

Powering through for the men were 

Solihull, Limpsfield, Jet Padel, Oxshott, 

Sutton Coldfield, Rocks Lane Chiswick, 

Roehampton and Middlesbrough. 

Champions were the Solihull Arden 

team, with Roehampton runners-up. 

The iPadel winter league was sponsored 

by @padelclub, @Royalpadel, 

@everythingpadel, @thebandeja. 


47

club News 

club News 

Whats happening in padel 

clubs around the UK... 

Fede coaching 

success 

The Limpsfield Club, Surrey, played host to 

clinics with World Padel Tour coach Fede 

Vives Ribas, coaching director at Royal 

Padel Academy. Organised in conjunction 

with iPadel, some 40 players took part, 

training for 90 minutes with the pro on 

specific elements of their game. 

“We would like to thank The Limpsfield Club and iPadel 

for the opportunity to work with the local padel players. 

It was a huge pleasure to help develop their sports 

education,” said Fede. 

Ian Colligon, of iPadel, said it was a great chance for 

players to improve their game: “Fede is an amazing 

teacher and everyone went away having learnt new 

skills and techniques. It was a really brilliant weekend 

with participants travelling from other clubs to take 

part. Given its success we really hope to do it again.” 

Rawdon take the honours in mega match 

Was this the biggest inter-club padel match in the UK to 

date? Yorkshire’s padel tour de force Nicky Horn believes 

so. Rawdon Tennis Club travelled to Harrogate to take on 

Surge Padel on home turf. Surge’s newly opened facilities 

have set the standard for padel facilities in the UK, with six 

15 minutes 

of fame 

Two padel centres gained their 15 minutes 

of fame after being featured on regional TV. 

Padel United in Maldon started the ball rolling 

with BBC Look East. Sports reporter Jonathan Park 

spent several hours at the club talking to players 

and watching the action, including Padel Panther 

junior sessions. He interviewed club founder Richard 

Smith, coach Jake Bewley and junior players Ben 

and Lily, learning basic rules and finding out why 

padel is the fastest growing sport in Europe. 

indoor courts. Four men’s couples, four ladies couples and 

four mixed couples battled it out, with Rawdon eventually 

taking the honours. “What a fantastic achievement just 

eight weeks after Surge Padel opened. Great play from 

Rawdon, worthy winners,” said Nicky. 

Hot on Maldon’s heels was Game4Padel, which 

had a visit from ITV Anglia sports correspondent 

Donovan Blake to its newest padel facility and the 

first court in Suffolk - a pop-up at Ipswich Sports 

Club, which is planned as a ‘taster’ with hopes 

to install four permanent courts at the club later 

this year. 



49

on courts 

News 

It’s not you... 

How often have you gone to smash a lob 

and been momentarily blinded by the 

court’s floodlights, leaving you tripping the 

light fandango while play goes on around? 

It happens to the best of players 

(we hope!) so what can you 

do about it? James Sandwith, 

of Padel Plus, explains why it 

might not be you to blame for 

dropping that point. 

Lighting matters. And if padel is to 

thrive in the UK, courts must be lit 

so that play can be enjoyed from 

early morning until late in the evening 

all 12 months of the year. A good lighting 

scheme will enhance the playing 

characteristics of the court with no 

shadows or flicker and minimal glare 

as you look up to an over-head ball. 

There will just be an even spread of light 

across the entire playing surface. 

There are courts in the UK without 

lighting - sometimes planning consent 

prevents it being included. In fairness 

to planning authorities, one reason for 

this is because outdoor sports facilities 

can result in light spillage into adjacent 

areas - including residential - giving 

lighting a bad reputation. 

Getting the symmetry right 

For outdoor courts, zero ‘light trespass’ is 

the aim. Asymmetric fittings enable all 

the light to be directed down onto the 

playing surface meaning surrounding 

houses, roads and infrastructure are 

all blissfully unaware of the fun you’re 

having. Optical reflectors built into 

asymmetric fittings concentrate the 

light beam with significantly lower 

energy costs. Light emission is not 

wasted on areas where it is not needed 

and courts can be lit with reduced 

wattage or a smaller number of light 

sources. 

Symmetrical light fittings distribute 

light evenly in all directions and are 

not intended for outdoor use. Not only 

does light fall on the intended area (the 

court) but horizontally and upwards as 

well. Symmetrical lighting is the main 

cause of light pollution to neighbouring 

structures and roadways; four courts 

with symmetrical lighting dramatically 

“ 

...if padel is to thrive in the UK, courts must 

be lit so that play can be enjoyed from 

early morning until late in the evening... 

” 

increase skyglow. Unhappy neighbours 

can lead to clubs being closed down, 

or as mentioned, planning permission 

being denied in the first place. 

For indoor and canopy-covered 

courts, light trespass is less of an issue 

but it is still the case that your lighting 

should stay on court. In addition to 

asymmetrical fittings you also want to 

see diffusion lenses to soften the light 

and reduce glare. 

The flicker headache 

LED light fixtures are now widespread 

which is a good thing in terms of 

reduced operating costs and broader 

environmental concerns. If, however, 

the LED driver and chip are low quality 

then the lights will flicker. Even if the 

flicker is only just discernible it will tire 

your eyes, impair your tracking of the 

ball and perhaps cause a headache 

over the course of a long match. You 

may have attributed these symptoms 

to losing – more likely it’s poor lighting 

resulting in your eyes having to work 

harder than they should. And for players 

wishing to record games in the glorious 

slow-motion now afforded by camera 

systems, well they won’t be able to as 

the flicker of regular LEDs interferes with 

the high frame rate of the latest video 

systems. No bragging rights for you on 

social media after that epic victory. 

See the light 

Padel is a tremendous sport for 

inclusion: the bounce makes it easier 

to start playing than squash and the 

walls contain the ball providing much 

better potential for rallies than in 

tennis. We have all enjoyed playing on 

some courts more than others, and 

lighting can play a huge part in that. 

Better courts enable better padel and 

whether you’re an elite competitor or an 

enthusiast, the right lighting equates to 

more fun and a better environment. 

50 thebandeja.com the UK padel magazine 

51

ISSUE 1 MAY 2022 

TIA 

Norton 

GB’s shining star 

takes aim at the top 100 

Kevin Palmer 

on Jurgen Klopp’s 


Padel elbow 

Cooler than tennis elbow 

but just as painful! 

iPadel league 

finals 

Padel Tribe UK 

talks NOX ML10 Pro Cup 

The Bandeja 

Issue 2 

Playtomic Juniors 

Jo Buchanan-Smith talks 

to us about their brilliant new 

initiative to find the padel 

superstars of tomorrow 

Padel in the US 

Minter Dial reports from WPT 

Miami and we find out how the 

game is growing there 

Columnist 

Kevin Palmer 

Shares more on his passion 

for padel 

Travel 

The Padel Tourist heads south 

thebandeja.com 52

The Bandeja Magazine Issue 1

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