Super Seniors prepare for Home Nations championships in March

THE first ever British Super Seniors Home Nations Championships will be held in March 2023 at We Are Padel Derby.

The event will provide international competition for the four home nations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland for the age groups from over-50 to over-60 and will be for both male and female players between March 3^rd and 5^th.

Tournament director Tim Edwards, who is the former vice president of British Padel, is confident that the championships can evolve into an annual event and play a key part in the selection process for the GB teams from over-50 up while also filling a competitive void in the calendar.

He said: “After many discussions we just thought why don’t we try the Home Nations idea with England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The Welsh courts are now in existence and it just seemed like the ideal time to organise a Home Nations championship.

“The other thing was that this Super Seniors idea was floated by FIP (International Padel Federation) and is about bringing the over-60s into international play, so I spoke with Peter Vann (former President of British Padel) and the idea is to try the Home Nations as a Super Series event at over-50, 55 and 60 and then we can follow up with a seniors tournament covering over-35, 40 and 45.

“So the plan is it will be male and female Super Seniors teams and Home Nations and we are delighted to announce that We Are Padel, Derby, will host the event from March 3rd to March 5^th and a big thank you to Rosco Muller at We Are Padel for agreeing to that.

“The other aspect of this is that it will be nice to have the ladies involved and the great thing is that this will give the senior padel players a real focus in the calendar year. It also corresponds with the Rugby in the Six Nations to add a bit of flavour to it all socially.

“We have agreement from all the countries in this respect and it is great to announce it and an exciting prospect for spring 2023.”

Edwards added: “The respective captains are Barry Coffey for the Irish, David McCulloch and John Byrne are the two Scottish guys, Paul Jenkins will organise the Welsh and Pete Vann will sort the English team out.

“At this stage there is a strong friendly and social aspect to the tournament, this is the inaugural championship so we view it as more of a friendly competition and the springboard to more competitive championships that will follow on.

“But there is no doubt March and We Are Padel Derby are a great place to start this all and it is an exciting prospect.”

With padel booming around Britain in 2022, especially in England and the LTA set to officially launch the sport in 2023, the timing appears perfect: “The reason for it happening at all is that there are more courts now and that each country can put forward a national team which is certainly a move on from five years ago.

“Also we will look to develop a British Team and a British Squad and we are already having squad sessions in this regard but a Home Nations Super Seniors Championship will be a giant step forward in this process and also a great help in the selection process.

“Really we want to find the best players in each country who are committed to going forward and being part of a GB set-up as well.

“People will ask what the selection process is and at the moment it probably is more word of mouth although England is perhaps different as it has the most players.

“David (McCulloch) and Paul (Jenkins)will be able to identify their top eight players easily for Scotland and Wales but Peter (Vann) perhaps has the toughest job and fortunately he knows everyone personally in terms of standard and who will be in contention.

“Pete already has a Northern group going with squad sessions for the vets and this Sunday we have a southern group going at Chiswick. So, this is all part of a process to establish the best players at senior level and an important one.”

However there is more super seniors championship competitive action in the pipeline with Edwards and Vann, who along with LTA Head of Padel Tom Murray, were the driving force in bringing padel to the UK and of course behind the creation of the UK’s first governing body in British Padel, again very much at the forefront.

Edwards explained: “We’ve never had a UK Championship and I feel like that someone in the over-50s upwards should be able to say they are British Champion.

“In this respect we did have one British Championship in Birmingham around 10 years back but it just didn’t back up. But now there are more players we need to get it going and that is something that hopefully can be in the pipeline and possibly with the involvement of the LTA.

“But the idea of a closed UK Championships is being discussed and that would be only for UK passport holders.”

Meanwhile in another coup for the putative GB super seniors men’s set up the Padel Paper can reveal that Team GB men’s head coach John Leach has been enlisted as coach and has already taken his first squad session.

Edwards waxed: “Peter and I will help run the GB vets set-up and we are delighted to have John Leach, who also coached the GB team at the recent world championships in Dubai, as our coach which is quite an achievement for us and obviously given his vast experience a real plus.

“John was also a coach when we went to Las Vegas and of course he is also actually over-35 now and so also qualifies to play for the team. I am pleased to say John Leach is coming down to coach at Chiswick on Sunday and it’s great to get things going with him.

“It really is tremendous to have a coach of John’s quality as the GB male vets coach and absolutely the same in terms of Nigel Garton doing such a great job for the ladies seniors teams.”