Kenilworth Tennis, Squash and Croquet Club set to open new padel courts in the spring

Kenilworth Tennis, Squash and Croquet Club is set to open two new courts to add to its sports offering at its Crackley Lane site.

A groundbreaking ceremony attended by Kenilworth and Southam MP Sir Jeremy Wright and Kenilworth Mayor Cllr Samantha Louden-Cooke took place at the club today (Friday January 6) to mark the beginning of the building of two padel courts with the hope that they are completed by the spring.

The £200,000 courts, funded in part by a Warwick District Council grant and a loan from the LTA and being built by Warwick-based company Padel Tech, will be an exciting new addition to the club.

Padel, which originates from Mexico and is popular in Spain, is a racket sport typically played in doubles on an enclosed court where serving is underarm, scoring works the same way as normal tennis and the ball can be played off of the court’s walls in a similar way to squash.

Club president Peter Whiting said that when the idea to build the courts was first discussed about 18 months ago he was sceptical but he was soon won over.

He said: “The LTA is promoting padel very strongly – it sees it as a way of augmenting tennis to different groups who might get put off by managing the technicalities of serving overhead.

"Quite a few members have played the game on holiday in Spain and that has now bubbled over into this level of interest with lots of people asking about it.

"We’ve had enquiries from existing members who would like to play but we’ve also had people come out of the blue to tell us they want to join the club and play.

"As the club president my job is to be a bit sceptical about this kind of thing.

"We haven’t got a lot of money but you can’t commit the amount we are on this without being pretty sure we’re going to get a payback on it.

"It needs to be more than a fad but the level of interest we’ve seen reinforces the idea that this is going to be around for a while.”

To find out more about the new courts and the club visit https://www.ktscc.co.uk/