New club aims to attract more women to padel

A new padel centre said it wanted to attract more female players to the fast-growing racquet sport by creating a dedicated women's league.

Padel Power, based at Kingsfield Business Park in Kings Heath, Northampton, opened a centre with nine courts last week.

A total of 180 male players have signed up to the men's Northampton Padel League, which was set up by the centre, but only 92 female players have signed up to the women's league.

According to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), padel is the "fastest growing sport in the world", and Grace Lavelle, co-owner of Padel Power, said the company wanted to make the sport "accessible to everybody".

She said: "A lot of women struggle with childcare. We hear from women saying they would love to play more but childcare is always a sticking point."

According to Lavelle, the centre intended to add a soft play to its offering in hope of attracting mothers to play.

Padel is similar to tennis but is distinguished by shorter rackets, smaller courts and underarm serves.

According to the LTA there are more than 1,553 padel courts in the UK, and more than 860,000 adults and juniors have played the sport at least once in the past year.

The opening of Padel Power on Good Friday was praised by players based in and around Northampton, where there were previously a limited number of courts.

Pippa Pickering, 35, said she had discovered the sport through Active Mummies, a Northamptonshire-based fitness group for mums.

"It's addictive," she said. "I've been playing for a couple of months... once you start, you can't stop.

"It is so much fun, even if you're not at a great level, it's good for everyone and everyone can get involved. I hope more women get involved."

Her sentiments were echoed by Emma Chew, 39, who said the sport was on a par with tennis, but "more sociable".

Emma Cannon, 49, from Towcester, said the new facility was "great for the area", having previously needed to travel to Bicester in Oxfordshire or "the north side of Northampton" to find a court.

"It's the in thing, it's still very up and coming," she said.

Jono O'Byrne, a Northampton-based padel player, said the addition of a new padel centre for the town was "just unbelievable".

"In Northampton we only had one other club [offering padel courts] before this opened," he said.

The self-confessed "padel addict" said he played five or six times a week, but that the sport provided more than just a rewarding physical challenge.

"It's the social side of it, having a coffee before or after, or a beer. It's here to stay and at the peak of its demand."

Joseph Barron, another of Padel Power's co-owners, said: "Padel is quick and easy to pick up.

"With tennis, if you're not of a good standard it can be a challenging game to play, but padel is more accessible.

"After the creation of our Northampton Padel League, we want to encourage more women to the sport, so we've been trying to match them to partners to join our doubles league. It's sort of like speed dating for padel.

"We have seven doubles courts and two singles courts, so hopefully we can help get a lot more people playing the game in Northampton."

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