Huddersfield Lawn Tennis and Squash Club held a successful week-long event to celebrate the opening of its new padel courts.

Padel is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world and the Huddersfield club has established itself as a hub for the sport in the North of England. 

Club chairman Peter Emsell said: “The whole week was superb and everyone really enjoyed it. We had people coming from all over the North of England to take part. We had people watching and overall it was just really terrific. I am so pleased with how it all went. Some people played for three hours, they were so tired they couldn’t wait to have a drink at the bar! 

“We saw 75 new people having a go at the sport during the week. Many of those have told us they will be back and we’ve asked them next time to bring a friend.”

Padel is played by over 10 million people worldwide. Having started as a sport in Mexico it quickly swept through South America and then into Europe.

READ MORE: Huddersfield Lawn Tennis and Squash Club is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year

Spain is reckoned to have over 20,000 padel courts, and an estimated six million players. It is now the country’s second biggest participation sport after football.

Peter and his staff are very proud of their efforts to make padel an inclusive sport for everyone and he sees interest in Huddersfield going only one way.

“One of the big things we want to keep driving is our junior intake,” he said. “They are the future of not just padel but the club as a whole and it’s great to see a number of them coming to events like this.

“We are a very inclusive club and encourage anyone to come along to have a go at playing padel. We want people to have a good time when they come and play.” 

What is padel?

  • A mixture of tennis, squash, and racketball, played indoors or outdoors in doubles format
  • The court is two thirds the size of a tennis court and enclosed with wire mesh
  • The glass walls at either ends are used to play off (like squash) which means you can have long rallies
  • Scoring is the same as in tennis but with underarm serving – easy!