New padel courts open in Northamptonshire village with bosses keen to build a community using UK’s fastest rising sport
Three new padel courts have opened at Grendon Hall with the hope of finding a place in Northamptonshire’s amateur sport scene.
Bosses at Play Padel, a new three-court facility at Grendon Hall which opened on December 26, have described the first few weeks in business as ‘crazy’, with big plans for the club in the coming months.
Play Padel takes up space within the grounds of Grendon Hall and features three playing spaces, a clubhouse and an area for seating, hoping to attract Northamptonshire residents to the budding sport.
Sham Vaid discovered the sport while on holiday with his brother in Morocco and has described the business as a ‘passion thing.’
He said: “We love it, but we’re not expecting to retire off it. We’re happy if it does well and people are enjoying themselves, that’s what it’s all about.
“My brother took me on holiday last year and there was nothing to do so we found a padel place and I fell in love with the sport.
"I came back and was adamant that we would open padel courts. In between that we’ve opened and it’s gone crazy. We timed it well.
“We were literally back to back, fully booked until 5 January when people went back to work. We can’t complain about that."
Work began on the construction of the courts and the creation of the club in Main Road, Grendon, in September last year, with the first players being welcomed on Boxing Day.
As well as the three purpose-built, floodlit courts, the club has room to expand, with ideas such as a seating area, fire pits, changing rooms and a coffee room.
The club launched a mixed doubles tournament this week and is hoping to cater to people of all ages and sporting backgrounds.
Sham added: “Padel is very sociable, because it’s smaller and you have the glass surrounding you, there’s always a competitiveness with friends and such. It’s good fun.”
"I’m hoping that when we have a league, which will be live soon, we’ll have games home and away.
"This is something we’ve done out of love for the sport. We’re trying to build a community."
Padel is one of the fastest growing sports in the UK. A racket sport played using a doubles format, the sport differs from the likes of tennis and badminton by placing players in a small court space, with balls played off the surrounding walls, not unlike squash.
The sport is described by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) as ‘fun, easy to learn and extremely sociable’, with the 20-metre-long court and enclosed space allowing for conversation, and underarm serves paired with shorter rackets than tennis, badminton or squash making it more accessible to those unfamiliar with court sports.
Play Padel courts can be booked online using Playtomic here, with evening bookings costing £36 for four people, and daytime bookings priced at £30.
Padel rackets can be hired on site for £2.50 per person and balls are provided free of charge.
More information about Play Padel can be found here.