Anne Wodhams and Diane Caulkett may have a combined age of 158 but they are “fiercely competitive” on the padel court.
The duo, who play at Padel United in Maldon, Essex, were club standard tennis partners for nearly 20 years before transitioning to the padel court in October 2022. Since then, they have played in both editions of the Over-65s Phoenix Cup, firstly at The Padel Hub in Slough last year then at Surge Padel in Harrogate on 8-9 June.
Anne (pictured above, right) and Diane have received coaching from the renowned Dan Troy – and at one particular training session they were joined by Dan’s protégé Aimee Gibson. A nugget of advice from the British no.2 has benefited the retirees ever since.
Diane told The Padel Paper: “Dan has helped us an awful lot. Coming from tennis, you tend to hit the ball hard, but he kept saying, ‘Hit it softer, build the point, don’t go for the winners.’ When Aimee joined us at one session, she kept saying, ‘Down the middle! Down the middle!’ Now, every time we hit a winner down the middle, we look at each other and say, ‘Thank you, Aimee!'”
Diane admitted that she and Anne are “our own worst enemies” because they both feel pressure not to let each other down on court. “We are fiercely competitive,” she chuckled.
Anne added: “I don’t want anybody to give me any quarter because of my age. When someone comes on court with me I want to give them a decent game. I’m never going to be good – but I don’t want people thinking, ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’s her!'”
As well as tennis, Diane is a former squash player who also enjoyed mountain walking, canoeing and cycling with her husband in retirement. After he died in late 2020, she searched for a new pastime to keep her physically and socially active. Padel fitted the bill perfectly.
“It’s made a huge difference to my life,” she said. “After my husband died during Covid, I had a partial knee replacement so I found tennis difficult, but I found I could play padel which meant I didn’t lose playing a sport. It’s such a social game and we love club mix-ins and competitions.”
Diane has been on two padel holidays to La Manga with other members from Malden and, at the time of writing, she is cycling 1,300km from Prague to the Dutch coast!
Anne also feels blessed to have discovered padel as “the tennis court seemed to be getting bigger as I got older!” She said: “I am grateful for every time I play. I am so lucky to be able to go on court. My time might be fairly limited, but I want to get as good as I possibly can.”
Both Anne and Diane were ecstatic at getting the opportunity to play in the Phoenix Cup. “We got treated like long lost friends,” said Anne. “Everybody is so generous on court. We got lovely, friendly comments which don’t happen as much on a tennis court!”
The second edition of the Legends Cup (over-59) and Phoenix Cup (over-65) in Harrogate were organised by GB Seniors international Nicky Horn and sponsored by eco-conscious active wear brand Pokita.
The Legends Cup was won by Kath Baker and Sarah Gorman of Rawdon Padel Club in Leeds and Jonathan Sowden and Peter Andrews from Blackpool.
The Phoenix Cup was won by Brian Barrowman and Andrew Mears of Chapel Allerton in Leeds and Rosie Connell (also Chapel Allerton) and Louise Dalglish from Gloucester.
Rosie commented: “This was the friendliest tournament I’ve ever played in. Everyone played hard but most important supported each other.”
