The UK PADEL Four Nations saw 8 events happen across the weekend as England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland took to the charcoal courts of Slazenger Padel in Leeds.
The overall winners were England, but it wasn’t a whitewash with plenty of depth on show from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Ireland were champions in the Women’s over 50 event and Scotland took the Women’s over 60 event and the newly created Open Men’s event.
The first edition of the Open event saw some of the very best Padel players in the UK. In the men’s event this included Louie Harris representing Wales, Sam Jones, Jake Bewley and Theo Garton for England go 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 the odds 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 Over 40, Over 50 and Over 60 events being played to an incredible standard featuring and some of the original founders of the idea, including Tim Edwards from Wales, David McCulloch and John Byrne from Scotland trying to stop Peter Vann from lifting the overall title ( which they couldn’t this year)
It was clear to see the growth of Padel from Wales and Ireland from well behind England and Scotland in number of courts made them no less competitive. The Irish Women’s team pushed England hard to get 2nd place and the over 50 Irish team won all of their matches to take the title. With Wales recruiting the likes of Louis Harrie 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. We have seen South Wales building as each UK PADEL County championships event has played out for instance.
Tennis Scotland will be proud of the unique sense of togetherness, with the teams training together and travelling together and some great family stories like Mark and Gavin Picken played together in the over 40’s and pushed England hard to get 2nd place. As well as Ashley Mears in the over 50 team and her son Sammy playing in the Open Men’s event where Scotland were victorious.
There were so many notable moments but the championship shoot out in the Open Men’s competition which can be viewed here.
Which saw the open Men’s champions Scotland having to reel back in the England side to take a clean sweep of their rivals and win the first Men’s UK PADEL Four Nations Open category.
The final group standings can be found here
| 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 |
UK PADEL Events Director Mark Ayers couldn’t have been happier with how the weekend went “ to see this level of competition happening across 8 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 and 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 steppingstone to taking the competition landscape to the next level in a UK PADEL way, building great communities and opportunities together.”
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