Sunday 1st May was a hugely successful Launch Day for our new Padel Court.

The court was officially opened by our local MP Heather Wheeler and also attended by  Jane Hunt MP for Loughborough. Jeremy Fisk, our chair, gave a speech thanking all of the people that have helped bring the court to reality - including South Derbyshire Council who gave us a grant for £25,000, the LTA who provided a £50,000 loan, East Midlands Airport who donated £2000 towards an initial purchase of Padel rackets and PDH sports who supported our launch day with a £350 donation towards the day's coaching. Representatives of all of these bodies are pictured above, along with Julia Allen who did the planning drawings and application and committee member Anne Allen who did a huge amount of work on all our funding applications.

During the day we had fourteen 20 minutes slots for 6 people at time to learn about and Try Padel. All the slots were more than filled as we also enabled loads of others who turned up on the day to have a go. It was an honour that the first 20 minutes session included former Olympic badminton player and former European Champion - Donna Kellogg, playing against Kate King the LTA Midlands representative (both pictured above)

Huge thanks must also go to Chris Booth who ran all of the Try Padel sessions throughout the day. Her coped amazingly with whatever the day threw at him and provided a great experience and introduction for everyone even when the groups contained very mixed abilities. It just proved why Padel is such a fantastic game and why families love it, because different standards can all play together and enjoy themselves.

Throughout the day our coaches also did an amazing job entertaining the over 140 people that signed in for the day with fun games and activities on the tennis courts. And Chris Spence kept everyone nourished with his amazing crepe stand.

Now everyone can just enjoy Padel - either by booking courts on a Pay&Play basis, or by joining the club as a Padel member and then playing for free.