Nick Baker interview: UK Padel CEO on major expansion of national schools tournament

UK Padel’s new U15 Schools Championships, taking place on 2 March at Rocket Padel Ilford, will be the biggest ever junior padel tournament in the country, and is designed to build on the success of the U18 tournament launched last September. As a growing number of British schools take up the sport, Nick Baker speaks to Padel Business Magazine about plans to further expand the Championships, as well as building courts at both private and state schools, and shares his views on the potential of the sport among the next generation of players in the UK.

Last September, schools padel in the UK took a big step forward, with the first-ever nationwide schools tournament for the sport in the country. The inaugural UK Padel Under-18s Schools Championships was held at Rocket Padel Bristol, with 85 children from 11 schools split into 21 teams: 13 boys, four girls and four mixed.

Five months on, the competition is expanding further, with the first Under-15s UK Padel Schools Championships taking place this Sunday, 2 March at Rocket Padel Ilford.

The event will be the biggest ever junior padel tournament in Britain, with ⁠104 children from 13 schools – 11 private and two state – competing across 35 teams of between four and six players each. There will be 17 boys teams, eight girls teams and ten mixed teams.

Among the schools taking part are some of the most successful at sport in the country, and the three winners from last year’s U18 competition – Whitgift, who won the boys event, Clifton College, who won the girls competition and Millfield, who won the mixed event – will all be entering teams in the new U15 tournament.

The other private schools competing on Sunday are Charterhouse, City of London School for Girls, Colfe’s School, The Coopers’ Company and Coborn School, Epsom College, Hurst, King Edward’s Witley and Seaford College. The two state schools entering teams are Aylesbury Grammar School and Dr Challoner’s Grammar School.

The U15 tournament matches played on Court 1 at Rocket Padel Ilford will be live streamed on UK Padel’s YouTube channel.

Providing a welcome contrast to typical school sports competitions

Nick Baker, the UK Padel CEO and co-founder, says the aim is to build on the success of the U18 competition after receiving outstanding feedback from schools following last year’s event.

“Heads of sport from schools competing in that tournament told us it was the most amazing day of school sport they'd ever had, because the kids were engaged and learned a lot, while having a great time.”

He says the feedback also suggested the format of the tournament – with timed matches of 30 minutes each – provided a welcome contrast to the structure of typical school sports competitions.

“So much of school sport, especially at a big national tournament, involves people hanging around, playing a match, and then standing there for a long period of time, before you might play again.

“The directors of sport who came to our U18 event really liked the dynamic format, where kids were constantly playing a match, coming off, playing another match, coming off. At no stage were they standing around getting bored.”

To accommodate the higher number of teams, at the U15 tournament all matches apart from the final will be timed at 20 minutes each. A five-hour round-robin group stage will be followed by a knockout phase involving quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final.

“We'll also keep one or two courts spare so when kids are not playing they can jump onto a court and have a hit,” says Baker. “We're just trying to give them as much padel as we can.”

U13 schools tournament being considered

As it looks to capitalise on the interest in its schools competitions, UK Padel is to make the U15 and U18 Championships annual events. The U18 tournament will take place at Rocket Padel Bristol again this year, on Sunday 5 October, and Baker says it will be “a whole step up again in terms of numbers.”

He adds that UK Padel is actively considering an U13 tournament, as well as holding a schools competition in the north of England, most likely in a large city such as Manchester or Leeds, to make it more practical for schools in that part of the country to enter teams.

A further key aim is to get sponsors on board. Last year’s U18 tournament was sponsored by the wealth management and professional services group Evelyn Partners, but it has opted not to renew.

Baker explains that while last year’s competition took place alongside an alumni event, allowing Evelyn to target potential customers, this year’s tournament will be a stand-alone event. And he admits that for financial services businesses such as Evelyn, sponsoring schools tournaments is “not an obvious fit.”

“They face very strict advertising rules over what they can do around kids, so it's just a stretch too far. Evelyn was a fabulous sponsor and we were very grateful for what they did but it'll probably suit another sponsor better.”

He adds: “I think it's a really great time for the right sponsor to come on board. Schools padel is only going in one direction here. This is going to be a huge growth journey, and we really passionately believe in supporting and encouraging kids in this game.”

Plans underway to open padel courts at private and state schools

While the future for padel in UK schools appears increasingly bright, the growing enthusiasm for the sport is yet to translate into large numbers of courts. The only school in the country known to have padel courts open currently is The Streetly Academy, a secondary state school and sports college near Birmingham, which has two courts.

Others have announced plans to open padel facilities, including The Oratory and St Hugh's, both in Oxfordshire, while operator Soul Padel is planning to open a four-court site later this year at Bolton School in the north west of England.

UK padel – which aside from being the biggest padel tournament operator in the country also sets up and operates its own clubs, with nine courts across two sites in Buckinghamshire and one in Cornwall – is itself planning to open a new facility at a private school in Essex, which will feature three covered courts, and is due to open by June.

The site will be the first facility opened by UK Padel within a school, and Baker says he expects many others to follow in the coming years.

“We've had 10 or 15 conversations with different schools who want to build padel courts. And I know many more that are looking or have plans already.”

Baker says that of those conversations, most have been with private schools, which he notes often have the ability to fund the court building themselves or raise money through alumni. However, he stresses that UK Padel is also speaking with a number of state schools about a funding arrangement that can work well for both parties.

“If a state school wants to have padel courts but doesn't have the money to do it, we can fund the whole facility and basically do a swap where they give us land for free, and we give them lots of court time for their kids for free. And then outside of school hours and outside of school term time, we can run it as a commercial padel club. So it's a win-win. That’s a model we really like, and we are in dialogue with a few state schools around doing that.”

First UK Padel Universities National Championships attracts 143 students

UK Padel is also looking to boost competitive padel at British universities, and held its inaugural Universities National Championships at Rocket Padel Bristol on 1-2 February 2025. The event was the biggest ever student padel tournament in the UK, with 143 students competing.

Twelve universities took part, with 37 teams: 20 mens, eight womens and nine mixed. The University of Nottingham won the mens competition, with Cardiff University winning the womens event and Cardiff Metropolitan University the mixed competition. 

Baker says those competing “had an absolute blast, and some of the feedback, again, was just, ‘please can we do more of this’?”

UK Padel is also introducing an U18 competition in its County Championships, which have so far included an open age category, as well as over-40s, over-50s and over-60s. Last year’s edition, held at Rocket Bristol in November, was by far the largest padel tournament held in the UK to date, with 217 competitors from 29 counties. The first U18 competition will be held on 29-30 November at Rocket Padel Bristol, which is the home of the 2025 UK Padel County Championships series.   

Giving the next generation opportunities to play padel

Amid concerns that the surge in padel participation in the UK is being largely driven by middle-aged or older people, and that the cost of some courts may make it unaffordable for young people and give the impression of an elitist sport, Baker believes padel can become well-established among younger generations as long as they are given the chance to play.

“Padel is just such a great game for kids,” he says. “Traditional racquet sports like tennis and squash are technically difficult games, and don't suit all children. You've got to spend many hours learning your craft before you're really going to have a good game. Whereas, with padel the barrier to entry, from a technical point of view, is so much lower. Kids can go on and play and have rallies the first time they go on court.”

He adds: “Padel is still growing hugely among middle-aged participants and we have a big uptake in the over-60s at our clubs as well. But it's the kids where the future of padel sits, because they're going to be the ones who grow up with it and make it one of their main sports.

“I really firmly believe padel is going to be a mainstay of children's sport in the UK, going forwards. You just have to look at what's going on with our tournaments, but also what we see in our clubs is that if you give kids the opportunity to get onto a padel court they take it with both hands, and they love it, and they come off, and they've had a great time. What more can you ask from sport than that?”

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