University padel is set to explode in the 2024/25 academic year with the advent of the National Universities Padel League (NUPL) and the University Padel Promotion Programme.
The NUPL will start in early October with an initial 12 university teams taking part, split between northern and southern leagues.
NUPL is the brainchild of students Fia Tweedie and Barnaby Stephenson, who are members of Newcastle and Edinburgh university padel clubs respectively.
Thirsty for more competition, they set about establishing a national inter-university league and have enlisted Exeter University student Guy Stonor (son of Pep Stonor, formerly of Femme Open UK) to be the overall league coordinator and organiser of the NUPL’s southern division.
Teams who’ve signed up so far are: Durham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Leeds and Northumbria (TBC) in the north and Exeter, London School of Economics, Oxford Brookes, University of the West of England, Bristol, Bath and Plymouth in the south.
All teams will play against each other in their respective divisions before a finals day at an as-yet undecided location during the summer term.
Teams will feature four men’s pairs and two women’s pairs, or mixed teams if there isn’t enough players of either gender. Fixtures can involve three teams meeting at one location and playing each other, or one v one fixtures.
The top two men’s pairs and the top women’s pair from each university, plus the top four individual best pairs, will go through to finals day.
British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) – the UK’s national governing body of unviersity sport – is yet to recognise padel, but NUPL co-founder Fia is undeterred.
She told The Padel Paper: “BUCS are not willing to take padel on board yet, so we’ve gone ahead and done it ourselves. There’s a gap there and students are keen to play competitive games.
“We want to make padel as competitive as possible at university level and inspire future freshers to arrive at uni and want to get involved. We’re super excited about it.”
In a separate development, The Padel Directory (launched earlier this summer by George Modler and Ben Harris, pictured below) have launched their University Padel Promotion Programme with the aim of growing and connecting university padel across the UK.
The programme offers free memberships to university students to give them access to discounts, tips and information on the UK padel scene. It also offers free promotion of university padel societies to help them raise awareness and make a longer lasting impact.
“We are proud and extremely grateful to promote and connect university padel in the UK,” co-founder George told The Padel Paper. “It is a side of the sport I know well from hosting university padel tournaments with Golden Point Padel to helping out with the padel society at Bristol University.
“The University Promotion Program is just the start of our mission to make padel an established sport among students. We hope it helps to make equipment, events and information more accessible for these uni padel societies.”
Universities can get in touch with the University Padel Promotion Programme via george@thepadeldirectory.co.uk
