TREVOSE BRINGS PADEL TO CORNWALL!
We are delighted to announce the imminent arrival of two Padel courts (located on two of the existing tennis courts) – a ground breaking development in conjunction with Padel construction experts, Rocks Lane Padel, that will mark the launch of the first ever Padel tennis courts in Cornwall.
“It has been my dream to bring padel to the UK for over 10 years. I first became inspired after seeing a family playing padel with smiles on their faces whilst on holiday in Spain. I wanted to find out more about this unique sport that seemed like a cross between beach tennis, lawn tennis and squash. After some research, it quickly became my aim to develop a padel tennis facility in the UK that would be available to all and give people of all ages and abilities a chance to play this fun and sociable sport with friends and family. This dream was realised when we built the largest padel centre in the UK on Chiswick Common in London, 12 months ago. We now have 4,500 registered players, 5 full time padel teaching Professionals, local and national tournaments and a number of players representing Great Britain.
We are now becoming a Centre of Excellence for junior players in the UK with our latest initiative in partnership with Playtomic, our online bookings partner. Coaching and official education will follow shortly, giving a pathway for many new career opportunities in padel.
The next stage of this historic journey takes place in Cornwall and we are very excited to bring this sporting joy to Trevose!”
Chris Warren – Rocks Lane Padel
SO, WHAT EXACTLY IS PADEL TENNIS?
Padel as a sport originated in 1969 in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco. The founder of padel, Enrique Corcuera, was a wealthy business man. At home, he didn’t have enough space to put in a tennis court, so he came up with a similar sport. He created a court that was 10 by 20 metres in size and surrounded by 3-4 metre high walls. A net divided the court into two equal sides. Because of the smaller playing field, he decided to play with wooden rackets that were smaller than traditional tennis rackets.
In the beginning, padel was only played by the Mexican elite, but through Alfonso De Hohenlohe, a Spanish friend of Corcuera, it ended up in Spain. De Hohenlohe introduced the sport in Marbella, where the first European padel club was founded in 1974 at the Marbella Club which is now an exclusive 5 star hotel. The first players were all wealthy friends of De Hohenlohe and when Spanish King Juan Carlos and ex-Wimbledon champion Manolo Santana started promoting the sport, its popularity rose very quickly.
HOW DO YOU PLAY PADEL?
Padel is played on an enclosed court measuring 10m x 20m with glass walls and is a mixture of tennis, squash and beach tennis. Four people play the game in a doubles format with a tennis scoring system. It’s a faster moving game than regular tennis and is said to be much easier to play, suitable for all ages and abilities. Each rally begins with an underarm serve and the bats are shorter versions of a tennis racket – made with fibreglass or carbon and soft foam with no strings.
It is hugely popular in Spain with over 20,000 padel courts and is now more popular than tennis due to padel being technically easier to play and therefore being available to a wider cross section of ages and abilities. It is gaining momentum throughout the World with Sweden, UAE, France, Portugal and Italy rapidly installing a significant number of padel courts over the last few years.
In addition, it’s popularity in the UK is growing by the day.
The mission at Rocks Lane Padel is, according to Founder, Chris Warren,
“To provide the best opportunities to play, learn and compete in padel for everyone. We want to provide as many padel courts as possible throughout the UK.
This summer we will add 4 covered courts to our 6 outdoor courts at our Chiswick padel centre in London. Thereby creating the biggest padel facility in the UK.
4 more courts will be finished for the Whitsun holidays in May in Cornwall at The Point at Polzeath and Trevose Golf and Country Club in Cornwall”.
We hope this will provide another exciting addition to our facilities and that you will all get enormous joy from playing this wonderful new sport – a sport that can be embraced by all generations no matter of age or ability.
