Olympic gold medallist Richard Leman is spearheading a project to add four LTA-funded padel courts at the venerable East Grinstead Sports Club in Sussex.
East Grinstead is best known for being one of the most successful clubs in English hockey, having won the national men’s title four times and the women’s title once, in 2023.
As well as multiple hockey teams playing at elite and grassroots level, the charity-owned community sports club has cricket, netball, badminton, pickleball and squash facilities plus a gym, changing rooms and bar.
Leman – a member of Great Britain’s famous 1988 Olympic gold medal-winning men’s hockey team in Seoul (“Where were the Germans?” etc) – is former Chair and now Trustee of the club. He is leading the project to add four covered padel courts on the site of two of the club’s nine netball courts.
The courts are being 60% funded by the LTA Foundation with the remaining 40% covered by loans from club members. Planning permission is in place and HexaPadel and Fordingbridge have been commissioned to provide the courts and canopies respectively. Leman says he expects the build to be completed before Christmas.
Leman has been told that the LTA loan is the second biggest the federation has given out so far for the addition of padel courts to a UK sports venue. He said the toughest part of the project thus far has been negotiations with England Netball about removing two of the club’s netball courts to make way for the padel installation.
“This is a project I take great pride from,” Leman told The Padel Paper. “I recognise the opportunity that padel gives the site from a commercial perspective as well as the opportunity to attract new people to the sport.
“This should put the whole charity in financial security for the next 20 years – as long as the padel bubble doesn’t burst within 10!”
Leman, who followed his father in playing a leading role in the management of the club, sees the padel project as “a bit of a legacy.” He said: “This club is in my blood. I have project-led on all the other facilities we have here and taken on the responsibility of developing the site.
“The addition of padel courts means we can reinvest everything back into the site and enhance the whole venue from grassroots to elite. We always want to support the community and the region, giving people an opportunity to participate, whatever their chosen sport might be.”
