And so a nine-strong Channel Islands team, all but one of whom are from Guernsey, are jumping at the opportunity to contest this weekend’s UK County Padel Championships in Bristol.
A CI over-40s squad of predominantly Jersey players had returned an age-group title in June 2024, but this first senior team outing has been long in the planning.
Guernsey Padel committee member Sara Woolland has highlighted how important the timing is.
‘As we know, padel is growing too fast, and it will not be long before many of the counties that are not fielding such strong teams are going to catch up,’ she said.
‘We feel like we have got to go now.’
Guernsey has long been a front-runner in padel, having first installed courts in 2017 before a huge expansion four years later, giving the island a jump on many UK clubs.
This commitment has been quick to pay off. The de la Mare siblings and Olly Cull are among the LTA’s highest-ranked players, providing a strong heading to the CI team.
‘We feel that most racquet sports, we have never really had the opportunity to be in the running for titles, whereas padel, we are actually still – because we started so early – a bit ahead of the curve of a few counties,’ Woolland added.
‘We thought if we could get our very strongest team out, we have got a good chance of going quite deep in the competition.’
The Guernsey-led side will be competing in the men’s, women’s and mixed categories.
Cull will be joining the son-and-father combination of Liam and Matt de la Mare, Cameron Gomes and Jersey’s Aaron Higgins in the men’s squad.
Topping the LTA rankings at just 15, Chloe de la Mare spearheads an all-Guernsey women’s team that also includes Lauren Watson-Steele, Chantelle de la Mare and Katie Inder.
Although arguably strongest in the mixed – where Chloe de la Mare and Cull will join forces at No 1 – Woolland sees the islanders as very competitive in all categories.
But she is not understating the difficulty of landing a county crown.
‘We would hope to be in the semi-finals or final.
‘It’s difficult because you never quite know, especially in the counties near London, if they get a couple of GB players in there, it then makes it really tough.
‘To win it is going to be really tough. Our best chance will be in the mixed if we want to win it.’
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