Andrew Simister says “it was wonderful to feel part of a family” after becoming the first British amputee to compete on the Inclusive Padel Tour in Milan last weekend.
Andrew, who lost his right leg after a road accident in 2022, took up padel last year with coach Nicky Horn in Harrogate as he gained confidence and mobility on his prosthetic leg.
The Padel Paper interviewed Andrew last May in a bid to help his search for fellow amputees in the North Yorkshire area who could join him on the padel court.
Although that search didn’t bear much fruit, in the meantime Andrew connected with Italian Paralympic athlete, fellow amputee and padel enthusiast Alessandro Ossola on Twitter. Alessandro told Andrew about the Inclusive Padel Tour (IPT) and invited him to Milan to play in last weekend’s competition.
The IPT competition format sees a disabled player (known in IPT circles as a ‘bionic’ player) play alongside an able-bodied team-mate. Andrew’s team-mate was his son Max. Rules state that the able-bodied player in the team gets one bounce, but the bionic player gets two bounces (unless his or her disability is upper-body).
In Milan, Andrew met fellow Brits Rob Teague (a wheelchair tennis player from Shropshire) and Rocks Lane’s very own Jack Binstead (below), the actor, entrepreneur and ambitious wheelchair padel player also featured recently on The Padel Paper, who was playing in his second ICT event after his debut in Dubai before Christmas.
Playing in the group stages at a Golf and Country Club just outside Milan, Andrew and Max lost their opening two matches narrowly (coming back from 5-2 down in the first only to lose 6-5).
Andrew took a nasty fall in their third match (which they were leading at the time) due to a technical failure with his leg. This affected his movement in the final group match, so they ended winless but still energised by the experience.
“We were far from disgraced as each match was close,” says Andrew. “It was just a great experience to realise what we could do going forward.
“There was a lot of love amongst the 30 disabled players. It was great to be at an event where I felt part of a family. There was nobody staring at me because I’ve only got one leg!”
The knockout stages of the competition took place at the Allianz MiCo arena in central Milan, coinciding with the second Padel Trend Expo event.
The next IPT event is Barcelona on 9 March – and although Andrew won’t make that due to an operation on his leg, he intends to play in several of the other competitions on the 2024 calendar, which include Rome, Turin, Venice, Dubai and Nairobi. “I want to do them all!” he laughs.
“It was a great learning experience and made me appreciate how much I’d improved since having lessons in Harrogate with Nicky. The standard was amazing and the experience overall was absolutely incredible.”
