THE UK’s first LGBTQ+ padel group marked their second year in existence after holding a successful fun taster day of padel and tennis.
Edinburgh based Colinton Squashers and Padelers were originally formed solely as a squash club for LGBTQ+ but when Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon shut down squash north of the border in 2020 at the height of the Coronavirus Pandemic – by wrongly branding it as an indoor contact sport – creator Jonathan MacBride adroitly expanded the club to establish a padel section.
Now, with the group having gone from strength to strength as they compiled over 300 instances of padel activity on the Game4Padel courts of neighbouring Thistle Sports Club, CSP enlisted the services of renowned Spanish coach Alejandro de la Caba to put their members through their paces on a day that celebrated LGBTQ+ involvement in sport and brought players together in a fun and social context.
The event was also funded by LEAP Scotland (Leadership, Equality and Active Participation in Sports for LGBTI in Scotland) and timed to be part of their annual festival fortnight.
Jonathan, who is seen in action below, was delighted to admit his pride at the growth of the padel section within his club: “Padel is a wonderful sport and it provides so much fun and enjoyment for people and we have been the only squash club of its kind in Scotland.
“So, for me it was a pleasure to be able to develop a padel section and provide an opportunity for people to come together and exercise and socialise and padel is a fantastic sport for that.
“For people who are not used to doing physical activity, padel is also a very accessible sport especially if they haven’t been racket sport players previously. For me it is like a mixture of squash and tennis played with a swing ball bat – plus you don’t have to walk as far to pick up the ball!
“You know what? People like all that, they just enjoy a sense of community and there is a bit of difference there in a LGBTQ+ padel group compared to other member clubs. They are coming together to meet other people like them, not just for the sport of padel but padel is a way to meet new people and increase your networks and feel part of something without it needing to be an intense sport atmosphere.”
Recalling how the Colinton Squashers added their Padelers section, MacBride, who is also a decent squash player, continued: “I had been organising squash in the same way since 2004 and with squash not being permitted in Scotland due to the pandemic there was funding available for sporting activity for LGBTQ+ people.
“So, with some other squash players having picked up padel, also having enjoyed it myself, I thought I could switch it over, get some funding, and offer it to the Colinton Squashers membership. So that is how it got started.
“Just round the corner from Colinton there is Thistle Tennis and Padel Club and initially we had a few of our squashers trying it, and with padel courts meaning you can have four on each court that was a positive.
“We also had other people who were not ‘Squasher’ members and what happened was that the squashers decided they were not really bothered about padel while the new people started playing padel.
“So we had about 26 people trying padel and that all adds up to well over 300 instances of people playing with a regular group booking every Wednesday evening. Padel has just been a very positive development for us.”
For MacBride, the success of the taster day underlined the value of CSP’s social aspect while he also hopes it provides the perfect platform to attract new members. He added: “We decided in an effort to increase our padel numbers to not only advertise padel but also to make tennis courts available to try and attract tennis players to try padel. We had 15 people signing up for the padel and tennis event.
“We were fortunate to get the services of an excellent padel coach, Alejandro de la Caba, who provided all kinds of useful tips and created some interesting practise drills for people to get into it and that went down very well.
“The finance for the equipment and seed funding for court bookings came from LEAP Sport Scotland and the event funding was part of LEAP’s annual festival fortnight, while the LTA have also been supportive of our group.
“There is an organisation called ‘Pride In Tennis’ and this is an LGBTQ+ group quite recently launched at the LTA headquarters to support LGBTQ+ tennis and padel players, coaches, and referees and all that to help our participation across these sports across the UK. So it is great to have the LTA’s support in this respect.
“Thistle have been a great help in allowing us to have this regular booking every week and their help is much appreciated.
“Really we just want to get the message out that padel is a great game to play and easy to pick up, and we would love more people to come along and enjoy it.
“Afterwards we go across to Colinton Castle Squash Club and socialise with the squash players there and it has actually become a really important part of our club that we sit down afterwards and enjoy that social aspect.”
If you are interested in joining Colinton Squashers and Padelers please check them out on Facebook!
