BY NICKY HORN
Harrogate must have more padel courts per resident than any other town or city for that matter in the kingdom! So why is that?
Firstly, James Gaston at the squash club in Harrogate went to Europe, loved padel and thought it would be good for his club.
A man with vision and the ability to get things done, he recognised the potential, got the funding and quickly built the second court in Yorkshire, before COVID hit.
Its success at the club was huge because:
- Easy – Squash players could easily play it and it looked like tennis so they loved it, so all the adult members (96% male) started playing
- Location – Sited next to the showground and outside the cube attracted lots of attention by Harrogate residents
- Coach – One female coach started driving females to come and have a go with their friends – and they did – via a WhatsApp group, and more than 70 females started playing within six months (including England squash star Jenny Duncalf, now coaching in Australia, pictured above on the left, with Harrogate squash champion Ross Kneeler on the right)
Remember squash at the height of the craze? Setting your alarm to book a court three weeks in advance in order to get the court? Well, it was the same for the padel court at HSFC. So they built a second court.
When COVID hit, the club closed but then Boris allowed tennis and golf to open first – and padel is affiliated to the LTA so padel was opened up before squash. The result was everyone wanted to use the two courts, all the juniors wanted to play, and both courts were now booked up like crazy.
In 2021, half a mile down the road, padel was again hitting the town. This time an indoor centre, not a squash club, a commercial business, converted office buildings into a gym and padel centre. Harrogate now boasted the largest indoor padel centre in the UK with six indoor adidas courts.
On a first floor building – just six padel courts, high roofs, strong lighting and loads of windows, Surge Padel is surely the most impressive centre for padel courts in the country. It’s smart, clean, well kept, modern and definitely not a traditional club.
Opening on January 22 this year was ideal for existing padel players in Harrogate because of the weather. They could guarantee they could book a court and play whatever the weather – and many members from the squash club did just that. At the same time we saw a huge volume of new players wanting to try this exciting, fun new sport.
Within seven days, the majority of competitors on the Surge courts were new players, not squash players.
Why was this?
- Social Media – Surge was strong on Instagram and invested in the Playtomic app to make things easier for the user
- No Membership – players just turn up and play there is no membership, no exclusivity barriers for people, no turnstiles, and many people like this openness
- Coaches – with three on site there to manage the different needs of the players and available every day, it enables new players, performance players and juniors to all have a coach to meet their needs.
The result is a junior community at the centre, more than 200 new adult players within two months, and a town that might need even more courts very soon!
So why not come to Harrogate and have a weekend experience? It’s on the train line from London to Leeds, change for Harrogate, get off at Hornbeam and it’s a 50-yard walk to the Surge indoor padel centre. To make a proper padel weekend, you could have coaching or a game at Surge, then walk to the HSFC club and play a match there as well.
Relax in Harrogate in the evening at a Turkish Bath, a walk on The Stray, and then go 20 minutes on the train to Rawdon for two more padel courts and more people to play. All with good Yorkshire hospitality.
And if you are a squash player – we have seven courts in Harrogate and a whole range of players, too – what could be more ideal for a weekend away?
Just look at all the smiles in these pictures!
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