The latest sports craze, Padel, could soon be coming to the Island in a major investment for an Island tennis club.

Padel started in Mexico and is played by celebrities and professional sports men and women. It’s a mix of tennis and squash.

The racquet sport is played in doubles and scored like tennis, with two halves of a court, but boxed in like squash and balls can be hit against the glass walls.

Now Ryde Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is looking to create the Island’s first two all-weather Padel courts, with the club saying the Island is the last county in England to get one.

It could cost around £150,000, with the cash coming from multiple sources including Sports England, the Lawn Tennis Association and club money made from fundraisers, taken from reserves and potential membership increase costs.

Importantly, the club says, it could become a transition sport for the club’s older players who find tennis too strenuous.

It is hoped, with the increased revenue from Padel, the club could move to ‘phase two’ of development, constructing the Island’s ‘first and only indoor’ purpose-built tennis facility, which was paused due to the Covid pandemic.

In planning documents, the club said the courts, which are 20m long by 10m wide, could sit at ease within the site and cause no harm to the character and appearance of the surrounding area.

You can view the plans, 24/00468/FUL, on the council’s planning register. Comments can be submitted until April 26.