England were overall winners of last weekend’s UK PADEL Four Nations Championships in Leeds although Ireland, Scotland and Wales also showcased their depth of talent.
The event saw both men’s and women’s Open categories added for the first time which attracted some stellar names to Slazenger Padel Club’s charcoal courts. There were also both male and female draws for O40, O50 and O60 age groups.
The Men’s Open trophy was won by Scotland, who also took the women’s O60 title. Ireland were champions in the Women’s over 50 event, with the other five categories all won by England.
Louie Harris represented Wales in the Men’s Open category, with GB team-mate Sam Jones, Jake Bewley and Theo Garton donnong the England jersey. They went up against Scottish double act Nick Hatchett and Sam McNeil and the likes of Shane O’Dea and Cairan Fitzgerald from Ireland.
Also new was the Women’s Open with highly-ranked players Charlotte McClure from Scotland and Wales’s Victoria Davies and a range of new players on the scene from Ireland who were up against a strong England squad with a range of top 10 players including Angela Wood and Jasmine Dedakia.
There was of course considerable depth in the age group categories with the O40, O50 and O60 events played to an incredible standard. The line-ups included Four Nations co-founders Tim Edwards from Wales, David McCulloch and John Byrne from Scotland, who were trying to prevent the legendary Peter Vann from lifting the overall title (which they couldn’t this year).
Wales and Ireland, although well behind England and Scotland in terms of court numbers, were no less competitive. The Irish women’s team pushed England hard to get second place and the O50 Irish team won all of their matches to take the title.
With Wales recruiting the likes of Louie Harris and Nick Williams and having great coordination all-round the principality, you can see the desire for international events will soon be matched by a high volume and depth of quality players. This has also been reflected by South Wales’s performance in the UK PADEL County Championships.
Tennis Scotland will be proud of the unique sense of togetherness, with the teams training together and travelling together. Mark and Gavin Picken played together in the Men’s O40 and pushed England hard to get second place. Ashley Mears played in the O50 while her son Sammy also represented Scotland in the Open Men’s event, where they were victorious.
Watch the championship shoot out in the Open Men’s competition:
UK PADEL Events Director Mark Ayers said: “To see this level of competition happening across eight events simultaneously in one centre is a UK PADEL dream. Well done to all the players and captains and the association that got behind their squads. This is going to be an event that goes into the calendar early.
“I’d also like to thank Slazenger Padel Clubs, our sponsors Portico Sports and Hambledon Vineyard as well as Northern Monk and Technifibre for supporting us with their top-quality ball.
“Sponsors and organisations are coming to padel, and this is another stepping stone to taking the competition landscape to the next level in a UK PADEL way, building great communities and opportunities together.”
Winners
Open Women’s: England
Open Men’s: Scotland
O40’s Women’s: England
O40’s Men’s: England
O50 Women’s: Ireland
O50’s Men’s: England
O60 Women’s: Scotland
O60’s Men’s: England
The final group standings can be found here.
