Across the UK padel courts have been going up at various tennis clubs. This is in line with the LTA mandate of using padel as a way to lure more people to the sport of tennis. Cwmbran in Wales will break with this tradition and become the first dedicated padel-only club.
The disused tennis courts at Woodland Road Sports and Social Club in Cwmbran are set to be torn down and replaced by two padel courts, with room for a third to be added later.
The club will use space occupied by the former tennis courts at the site for two projects. Half of the space is reserved for the padel court project, and, the other half of the space will be converted into an all-weather 3G five-a-side football pitch.
The plans for both projects received full planning permission from Torfaen council in July 2020.
Padel is extremely popular in Spain and many Latin American countries and is currently the fastest growing racket sport in the world.
There are an estimated 20,000+ padel courts in Spain but only 80 across the whole UK.
It was the Windsor Lawn Tennis Club in Penarth that installed the first padel court in Wales, and The Welsh Padel Centre will be adding two more courts.
The Woodland Road site is managed by registered charity Hwb Torfaen.
To quote the Croesyceiliog North Ward councilor Richard Clark, “As a child, the tennis courts were popular around the Wimbledon period. But over the years they have fallen into a poor state and for safety reasons have been locked up. Now, these projects bring new life to the old courts and this regeneration brings an ambitious start to new developments at Woodland Road.”
At the same time David Cornwell, chief executive of Padel Centres Ltd had spent the past couple of years looking for an appropriate site to create this dedicated padel club.
It is hoped that work on the facility will be started shortly and that the enjoyable sport of padel to Cwmbran, Newport, and beyond. Wales needs more padel courts and this is a big step in the right direction.