Two Congleton entrepreneurs are looking forward to serving the community after launching a grassroots padel business.
The sport, which is a hybrid of squash and tennis, has taken the nation by storm over the past year, with the national Lawn Tennis Association estimating around 800 courts and more than 400,000 players across the country.
GSM Padel owner, Jack Whiston-Rowe, (29), set up the business earlier this year with friend Connor Wilkins, (30).
The pair met as pupils at Eaton Bank Academy.
They said they “could not believe” that Congleton did not already have its own indoor padel courts.
Mr Whiston-Rowe said: “With all the new-builds and the amount of infrastructure going into Congleton at the moment, I couldn’t get my head around why no-one had already done it.”
Fed up with his office job of 10 years, Mr Whiston-Rowe decided to plough his savings into the new venture, which immediately took off.
He said: “We originally pitched the idea to Everybody Sports and Leisure, (which runs the borough’s leisure centres), but it rejected us and said it would do its own thing – fair enough.”
Undeterred, Mr Whiston-Rowe approached a landowner on Holmes Chapel Road who was looking to rent a 12,000sq ft plot of land, which included a barn that was formerly used to store animal feed.
“He wasn’t interested either,” said Mr Whiston-Rowe.
“But I ground him down over two months. I promised him it would be amazing – now we have a great relationship.”
The barn and land have been transformed into three indoor padel courts, a café, bar and beer garden, with plans for a possible two further outdoor courts.
On its launch day in February, the team was joined by comedian and television presenter Jason Manford.
Mr Whiston-Rowe said he was put in touch with Mr Manford by Macclesfield furniture shop Arighi Bianchi’s owner Nick Bianchi, who owns a padel equipment business with the comedian.
He said: “Someone said I should speak to Nick, because he was a fan of padel and it turned out he was in partnership with Jason Manford. I thought it was a bit random!
“(Mr Manford) was brilliant. He came on the launch day just out of the goodness of his heart. We didn’t have to pay him. He’s just a big fan of the sport.”
Originally invented in Mexico in 1969, padel first took off in Spain and the USA before making its way across the Atlantic to the Scandinavian countries.
“Places like Sweden had a huge boom”, Mr Whiston-Rowe said.
“There were so many courts set up that the market fell apart – there were just too many to keep up. Hopefully that won’t happen over here!”
Padel follows a traditional tennis scoring system, but players can also use the glass walls surrounding the courts to bounce the ball off, similar to squash.
Mr Whiston-Rowe said that while outdoor courts were now offered by Everybody Sports and Leisure in Holmes Chapel and at Alderley Park, his new venture offered the only indoor courts within a 30-minute drive of Congleton.
He said: “Obviously it’s better to play indoors when it’s raining, but it’s also not great to play outdoors when the sun is in your eyes and you’re trying to make a shot.”
While he said padel could be considered an “expensive sport” with courts costing £44 to book for an hour between four people, he hoped the glass walls would help to break down barriers within the community.
Pupils from Marton and Mossley primary schools have been invited for free sessions, as well as a Parkinson’s support group.
The business has donated £1,000 towards mayor Coun Robert Brittain’s charity ball, due to take place on 17th April.
“We’re trying to do the right things by the community,” Mr Whiston-Rowe said.
“We don’t just want to encourage people to play padel. I want people to know that we are trying to give back.”
Players can search for available courts near to them using an app called Playtomic. It allows users to book a closed session with friends or an open session which can be joined by other people looking for a game.
Users can find groups according to their preferred ability level, age and gender.
“It’s a fantastic way to meet new people,” Mr Whiston-Rowe said.
“We have a group of 12 players who didn’t previously know each other. They all started playing padel together and now they go out for drinks on a Friday night.
“It was so rewarding to watch that happen; those are the things that make us feel really proud.
“We’ve toyed with the idea of setting up speed-dating padel sessions, but we haven’t quite figured out the logistics of that yet!”
Find out more online at gsmpadel.co.uk.
(Photos: Jack Whiston-Rowe).
