The Bandeja Magazine Issue 1

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
40 thebandeja.com the UK padel magazine - May 2022
41