Bradford padel tournament raises £710 for Crisis homelessness charity

Padel’s latest Bradford story was not about rankings or trophies alone. At Strike Padel on Wednesday 13 May 2026, 11 two-player teams turned an inter-store competition into £710 for Crisis, using the sport’s fast pace and social pull to raise money for people facing homelessness.

The fundraiser was organised by Specsavers directors Raj Gill and Dominic Doran, who run stores in Bingley, Keighley and Shipley. Staff travelled in from branches in Cleckheaton, Chesterfield, Crossgates, Fox Valley, Halifax, Otley and Skipton, giving the tournament a wider regional footprint than a standard office outing and showing how easily padel can stitch together teams from different towns around a shared cause.

Each pair donated £40 to enter, while the organisers covered courts, racket hire and refreshments. Strike Padel also backed the event by offering discounted court prices and free racquet and ball services, lowering the cost of participation and helping more of the entry money reach Crisis. The result was a tidy, direct fundraiser built around competition rather than donation appeals.

Team Hawkins emerged as the winners and earned the headline prize: a final match against professional players at Strike Padel. Even without a grand prize purse, that kind of incentive matters in padel, where the appeal is as much about access and experience as it is about the scoreline. Events like this rely on a format that is quick to stage, easy to scale and appealing to mixed groups of staff, which is part of why the sport keeps finding new uses beyond league play.

Gill said the group prides itself on being active in its communities in Aire Valley and that this was the first padel tournament it had run, but not the last. That last point may be the most important business signal in the story. With Specsavers and Crisis already working together to improve access to eye and ear care for people experiencing homelessness, and with the partnership backed by more than £1 million in pledged funding over the last three years, the Bradford event showed how padel can serve as a fundraising engine with a clear social purpose.

The need is immediate. Crisis said the money will help it continue providing vital services, while also pointing to the major barriers people experiencing homelessness face in accessing healthcare, including going years without an eye test. In Bradford, charities such as Simon on the Streets and Emmaus Bradford are also supporting people who are homeless, underlining how local sport can feed into a wider network of practical help.