THE GB Women’s Seniors teams will take part in the first ever Six Nations tournament in Amsterdam in the Spring.
Speaking exclusively to The Padel Paper, GB seniors manager Sally Fisher has confirmed that Royal Padel of Amsterdam will host the event which will include teams from the host nation, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, GB plus a sixth wild card team still to be confirmed.
The competition will span the age groups between the over-40 category right up to over-55 and the hope is that it will continue on an annual basis much like its male counterpart.
The GB squad has already enjoyed two training camps in Spain and England while after two selection events with one held in the North and one in the South of England, at the end of July 2022, a squad of 30 players aged between 39 and 70 has been assembled.
Looking forward to the inaugural Six Nations Women’s Seniors Championship Fisher said: “2023 is looking hugely exciting and a very big year for Women’s Senior padel in the UK.
“In February we are co-organising the Six Nations Women’s Seniors tournament with the Dutch who will host and will see Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and GB of course competing plus a sixth wild card team.
“The Dutch captain, Mirjam Van Roer and I got together and we decided that the Netherlands was the most central location and there was agreement on this from the other countries, it was just logistically more feasible.
“We will see how it goes but at the moment the seniors get one event each year with FIP and we have seen a seniors invitational happen with the men and it has been very popular so the hope is that it will be an annual event.
“We are delighted that Royal Padel in Amsterdam are sponsoring the tournament in providing the venue which is wonderful.
“From a GB perspective what we realised in this development stage is that it is vital we gain exposure at international level before we end up at the next World Championship or European Championship and the Six Nations will be a vital part in achieving that.”
Working in tandem with her assistant Anthea Hunt, Fisher has created a precise infrastructure within the women’s senior set-up but was keen to heap praise on others as she explained: “Four of us work together to run the GB Seniors Women’s Padel Squad – our National Coach Nigel Garton, our squad captain, coach and player Libby Fletcher, while I play and also manage the squad and Anthea who is also a player assists me in this regard and her role is absolutely vital in the set-up.
“Anthea and I organise the calendar and our finances as we still have no funding from the LTA although we hope one day that they will feel they must fund us!
“We are delighted that Nigel Garton has agreed to be our national coach which is just amazing and wonderful of him as he is a fantastic coach and Libby (Fletcher), who has always been our star player and on-court coach, is also vice-captain!
“In October we had a training session with 20 of the squad in Sotogrande for a four-day camp and recently 24 of us went to Derby for a two-day camp while after two selection events with one held in North and one in the South of England, at the end of July 2022 we selected a squad of 30 players aged between 39 and 70.
“Really the inspiration behind this was our success in Las Vegas at the Seniors World Championships back in March. We won our group by beating Portugal, Germany and Denmark and we finished 8th out of the 16 nations and returned inspired to build on that success and create an even stronger GB Seniors Women’s team and greater strength in depth in the GB Squad.”
Fisher, who lives in Sotogrande but plies her padel at Tennis World in Middlesbrough and at Rawdon Tennis Club when back in the UK, has undoubtedly been the driving force behind a burgeoning and vibrant women’s seniors set up which is the envy of Europe.
Yet as she revealed at one stage the obstacles to creating one initially proved daunting: “The women’s seniors came about really after I played in the first Women’s Seniors World Championships in Estepona in 2018 when Carolina Prado was running the women’s seniors and the open team and that was when I got the bug.
“Up until that point I had just been playing padel as an ex-pat in Spain but when this happened I just saw padel as an incredible game when played at the top levels.
“Unfortunately the pandemic hit but then the second senior World Championships were announced for Las Vegas, originally for 2021 but then put back until early 2022, and I got wind of the fact that the LTA and the men had decided that the women weren’t good enough to go!
“You can imagine what that did as Estepona had been so much fun and I knew that if only we could find them then there more than enough good women, it was just that they weren’t easy to find!
“Carolina had left the UK and was no longer involved and it was a real ‘handing over of the baton’ moment and Carolina deserves tremendous credit for all she did for women’s padel in the UK.
“So I reached out to Peter Vann, Tim Edwards and Tom Murray and I said I’d like to volunteer but asked the question: ‘If I volunteer would you let me get it together and let us go?’ and the answer was yes!
“That was June 2021 when we thought we were preparing for an October World Championships in Las Vegas but due to the pandemic that was delayed until March 2022.
“Really we have three phases with the first to discover these women who can play well and get us all together.
“So for the whole of 2021 we spent the year speaking with the LTA in a bid to speak with any women out there who felt they’d like to play competitive padel.
“Of course we did manage to get a really good team together and we won our group and then unfortunately we drew France and lost but we came 8th out of 16 which vitally also gives us automatic qualification next year for the Worlds or the Europeans whichever is next.
“But a big part of that was the on-court coaching we got from our leading player, Libby Fletcher, and also Karen Hazard who were a great help in this regard as we couldn’t get any funding from the LTA and had to pay our entry fees with FIP which meant we couldn’t afford to pay for coaching.
“We were then really inspired coming out of Vegas and I decided we had to step it up as I believed in us and so did all of the other girls. Following on this summer we ran two search trail events effectively, one in the North of England at Surge Harrogate and the other at Rocks Lane in the South and at that one we used the Grade One Tournament.
“We also put the word out via the LTA newsletter and we now have around 140 women who have all now reached out and said they were keen competitors and wanted to get involved.
“So we kept the doors open and offer training and then we decided to select a large team as we are now in phase two which is develop and we have a squad of 30 and they live in Austria, Portugal, Spain, and the UK but they are all true Brits – we have no borrowed Spaniards as it were!
“We also have great sponsors and Bob Smith and Padelshack have been fantastic supporters of the GB Seniors Women’s squad from the beginning and continue to sponsor the squad, which makes a big difference to help keep the squad inclusive and accessible to all. I must also mention our gratitude to Toby Bawden for his patronage and Royal Padel as well.
“But our doors remain firmly open and if you are 40 years old or over, compete regularly at padel and would like to get involved, please contact the GB Seniors Squad by sending a message to our Instagram account: gb_seniors_padel.
