Padel Meets Paddle: A Walk Around Willen Lake

Family everywhere. Dogs everywhere. Nobody made to feel like they don’t belong. That’s Willen Lake in a sentence, and it’s exactly why UK PADEL Milton Keynes is going to fit here perfectly. We went for a walk around the lake this week to see it for ourselves, and one thing was obvious straight away: this isn’t a leisure park bolted together for profit. It’s a community that happens to have a lake in the middle of it. Whether you’ve come to spend money on the rides and the ropes course or just to walk the loop for free, there’s a place for you. Whatever age you are, whatever your budget, whatever you’re there to do, it’s built for everyone. That’s not an accident, it’s a design choice, and it’s exactly what we try to build into every UK PADEL club. Willen Lake sits right on the Newlands Roundabout, with the Premier Inn as a handy neighbour, easy to find, easy to spend a whole day at. Padel is built on the same idea as the place itself: easy to pick up, fun from the first rally, never intimidating for a beginner. Drop a padel court into somewhere that already believes in family, fun and happy holiday vibes, and it doesn’t feel like an addition. It feels like it was always meant to be there. Padel meets paddle. Willen Lake and UK PADEL Milton Keynes, a good match coming this October.

Gamma Chooses UK PADEL for Event Series

Gamma Communications rewarded its network of re-sellers with a UK PADEL-organised multi-event tournament. Previously, the internet service providers had tended to rely on five-a-side football and golf for these experiences. It was time for them to offer something new – and padel was the obvious choice. We put our heads together to help them deliver the Gamma Padel Smash series: four events at four venues across the UK involving more than 150 players. Players competed in three regional heats, and coaches were on hand for those new to the sport. It all led to a Finals event in London, with some exceptional padel on display. With a DJ, lunch, a charity raffle for two great causes and super prizes for the winners, a fabulous time was had by all. We love putting on events like this.

Your Rallies: Best of the Action

This UK PADEL Top 5 Plays takes us back to last year’s Over 60 County Cup, with this year’s event now just over a month away. Featuring East Scotland, Surrey, Essex, Kent and the Channel Islands, we’ve picked out five of our favourite moments—from lightning-fast reactions and incredible reaches to a superb mixed doubles rally that may just have been the match of the tournament. Who will make this year’s Top 5? Enjoy!

Padel to Combat Loneliness in Dorset

A third-generation farmer is hoping to combat rural isolation by opening a padel club in rural Dorset. Ben Chick, who won Britain’s Got Talent earlier this year as a member of Jeremy Clarkson’s Hawkstone Farmer’s Choir, works on his family farm in Sixpenny Handley in Dorset. Chick is now hoping to create an active community hub in a place where such things are badly needed. Dorset Council say one in five households are vulnerable to social isolation and loneliness in the county, and Chick said: “All of these villages around here really don’t have anywhere to congregate, and the sense of community has really been lost in the last 20 years. People are more connected than ever and I feel more lonely than ever.”