Huddersfield Lawn Tennis & Squash Club will be hosting a Padel Festival from July 12-16 to mark the opening of their newly-installed padel courts.
It is an exciting time for the club in what is their 140th anniversary year.
Padel is said to be the fastest growing sport on the planet and 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.
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.
Huddersfield Lawn Tennis and Squash Club chairman Pete Emsell is excited about the new courts. He also believes Huddersfield can become a hub for the sport in the North of England.
He said: “We probably now have the best facilities in the country for padel. The canopies were manufactured in Barcelona, we had a bit of trouble getting them into the country due to Brexit. However they are here now and so far they have stood up to West Yorkshire weather. Now we can play all year round.
“There is a facility in Harrogate and one in Middlesbrough but that’s it for the North of England. So to make Huddersfield a central spot for padel and to become a hub for the sport is just brilliant.”
The sport made its way to Huddersfield after a few of the club members had been over to Spain.
Pete added: “About 12 years ago some of our members who had been to Spain and enjoyed the sport wanted to play it here. They managed to get a grant from the council and we built two outdoor courts. Over time though they have been damaged because of the weather.”
As the courts needed renewing the club contacted padel company Game4Padel who were immediately impressed by the club’s willingness to grow the sport. They installed two covered padel courts, with floodlights.
Pete said: “They needed to be renewed but unfortunately the club didn’t have the money to do that. So Game4Padel got involved and it was fantastic we got to speak with them. We showed them what we wanted to do, they were impressed and decided to invest in us and work with us on padel.”
The club so far has over 100 players signed up to play throughout the year. However, Pete has set his sights much higher.
He said: “So far we have 100 people signed up to play but we want more than that. We want to get 300-400 people to play throughout the year. If the numbers get so high we’ll extend the facility’s opening hours. We already have people travelling from Hull, Sheffield and Manchester to play on our courts in Huddersfield.”
Pete is excited about the upcoming festival and is hoping that as many people as possible will turn up to give it a go.
“I’m looking forward to it, hopefully it will help us grow our numbers,” he said. “We are delighted to be officially opening our padel courts with this exciting week-long menu of events.
“We believe the courts are going to be extremely popular with people in the Huddersfield area, and we hope this encourages them to come and give it a go.”
The festival is free to attend with everyone welcome, including children. They can try out the new sport and take part in a series of lessons and introductory sessions run by padel professionals.
The Padel Festival schedule looks like this:
Monday
4pm – 5pm – Kids 6-9yo (8 spaces)
5pm – 9pm – Adults Intro sessions (8 spaces per session)
Tuesday
10am-12pm – Adults Intro sessions (8 spaces per session)
4pm – 5pm – Kids 10-13yo (8 spaces)
5pm – 9pm – Adults Intro sessions (8 spaces per session)
Wednesday
10am – 12pm – Adults Intro sessions (8 spaces per session)
4pm – 9pm – Tournament/Matches for current members/players
Spanish themed evening with food and drinks.
Thursday
10am-12pm – Adults Intro sessions (8 spaces per session)
4pm – 5pm – Kids 13-16yo (8 spaces)
5pm – 9pm – Adults Intro sessions (8 spaces per session)
Friday
10am-12pm – Adults Intro sessions (8 spaces per session)
4pm – 9pm – Adults Intro sessions (8 spaces per session)
If you are interested in participating you should register at https://www.game4padel.com/events
Padel could become an Olympic sport by 2028 or 2032 but what exactly is padel?
A padel court is smaller than a tennis court (10m x 20m) and is surrounded by glass walls and a metallic fence (3m and 4m high). It is a racket sport that combines elements of tennis, squash and badminton.
The balls are similar to those used in tennis, but the rackets are smaller and easier to play with as they are made from a high-density foam core covered in a carbon graphite wrapper.
When asked if the club had more plans for other events throughout the 140th year, Pete said: “We might be having another event in August. We are working on it with Game4Padel and whilst I can’t mention too much at the moment we could be visited by some famous sports stars.” Watch this space.
