IT may have been famous for its entry in the Doomsday Book and once been part of Henry VIII’s Tudor property empire but Imber Court is fast becoming one of Surrey’s fastest growing padel centres.
The property and land was purchased in 1919 as a training centre for the Metropolitan Police Mounted Branch with additional land donated for sport and recreation, while the current clubhouse was built in 1929 by public subscription and officially opened on June 11th that year.
In 2015 Imber Court opened its doors to the wider public offering membership to anyone in the local community looking to escape the stresses of modern life in this most scenic Surrey spot.
Six years later work began on introducing four padel courts to this fine establishment which also boasts seven grass tennis courts and a swimming pool as well as superb conference and restaurant amongst other high quality facilities.
Now amongst its padel playing membership are included Olympic skiers and no less than Damon Hill OBE, the 1996 Formula One World Champion who is a regular and enthusiastic player.
Run on a 30-year lease by the England Sports Group, the club is now ‘fully open’ to membership enquiries and as Director of Sport Scott Pearmain revealed, the astonishing uptake in padel membership has been at the heart of the club’s growth.
He explained: “We have four padel courts at Imber Court which we completed in July and the uptake has been tremendous. It has also been seasonal and we are on week four of our open leagues, which I am delighted to say are sponsored by Drop Shot, and in the last six weeks alone we have had a 200% increase in padel membership, which is incredible really.
“At present our tennis membership is 500 but I firmly believe padel will overtake that and we will expand our padel operation for sure in the future as the demand is, as I said, just huge.
“We are tenants at Imber Court, which is the old Metropolitan Police Club which was gifted to the police back in the 1800s and it has now become an open club and we have a 30-year lease.
“We have seven hard tennis, seven grass courts, two dedicated pickleball courts and now we have four beautiful blue padel courts which were driven by Clinton Lamprecht, the chairman of The England Tennis Group and it all started late last year and we finished up in July.
“We have different packages for tennis, padel and pickle membership so we have different categories and we have around 100 padel members alone since the courts inception in June. Through our website, www.englandsportsgroup.com , we welcome potential new members and also offer classes, trial sessions, open days, and equipment to hire and I have to say the conversion rate from trials is incredible.
“Really we created the padel facility due to demand, we do have other padel facilities like Stratford and Rocks Lane but what the guys were finding there is that because the courts could be booked 7 days or 14 days in advance they were all getting booked out, so we knew the demand was there for padel.
“Now we are getting guys coming up three times a week from Guildford and Woking and quite a distance away.
“We also have a Tuesday morning group who are a bunch of skiers including Olympians and no less than Damon Hill, the former Formula One World Champion racing driver, also plays in that, so we have guys travelling all over as we have the availability and there is just a really nice open club feel to Imber Court which is very important to us.”
Given the value provided by Imber Court’s padel membership package it is no surprise that the uptake has been so enthusiastic, set as it is set in 90 acres of prime Surrey parkland: “Our standard under 65 years of age fee for a full year’s membership is £27 per month, which we believe is very reasonable,” said Pearmain.
He continued: “Right now there is not a lot of daylight so there is a £4 booking fee and also £4 for the lights, which is £2 per person, which I think is highly competitive.
“With that membership we also offer social mix ins on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and a Wednesday morning, so this is booked through Club Spark with 16 tickets available so that no one is left hanging around.
“It is either me or Hugo Quarry, one of our top coaches, which run these evenings and the essence is that we mix the players up so that everyone is always meeting and playing with new people.
“Because it is such a new sport you don’t have people who have been playing for 25 years whereas with padel in our set up we are facilitating the members to get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and so who partners up best as well as enjoying the social element.”
“Historically Imber Court was known as a Metropolitan Police Club but now we have started inviting guys in we have all kinds of different groups coming in and they have all been pleasantly surprised not just at the sporting facilities but at the quality of the restaurant and the bar, conference facilities.
“So when people come in they are really excited about what we offer and the fact it is an open club is almost a surprise to them but a very nice one.
“I have come from a more traditional sporting background myself and have just been growing into my role as a padel coach and it is very exciting on a personal level to do that in a sport that is growing as fast as padel.
“I am LTA qualified as a coach and they are working very hard on expanding padel and building the game in the UK and we want to support them in whatever way is necessary on that journey.”
The England Sports Group was founded by South African former tennis professional Clinton Lamprecht in 1991 and has been coaching children in sport ever since the first club was opened at Hampton School, Middlesex.
England Sports Group has four strong divisions; ESG Schools, Tennis England, Camp England, and Gymnastics England and provides sports coaching for children in 10 clubs and at more than 50 schools and Pearmain explained: “England Sports Group was set up 32 years ago by Clinton Lamprecht, who is still chairman of the company and was a highly-ranked tennis player in South Africa who came over here to play the pro tour.
“Clinton started coaching in the area and that is how the England Tennis Group started all these years ago. Essentially what the company is about is that we offer a lot of coaching in the Surrey area and in and around West London and we do a lot of coaching work in schools and massive holiday camps and of course we offer club classes at Imber Court, Bushy Park and all the bigger tennis centres.
“We have now introduced a junior padel coaching course to mirror the one we run in tennis and that has lead to a massive uptake in padel from the kids and that is another aspect of the padel boom we find very exciting.”
Imber Court is located close to Thames Ditton and Esher railway station, and is easily accessible by road, so if you live nearby and are tempted to try your hand on one of their brand new courts, why not give them a go?
