Carlisle’s first padel venue draws 120 players on opening weekend

Carlisle’s first dedicated padel venue did not have to wait long for a verdict from the market. More than 120 players used Austin Friars School’s new courts in opening weekend, an immediate sign that the city had been sitting on unmet demand before AF Active Padel opened its four outdoor courts at Etterby Scaur.

The school has built the facility under a canopy structure, making it Carlisle’s first purpose-built padel site and, before this week, the only other courts in Cumbria were in Workington. That matters in a county where travel can be a barrier to casual participation, and Austin Friars has priced the venue to pull in both first-timers and repeat players, with racquets, balls and court hire offered at affordable rates.

Early usage suggests the location has already found a rhythm. Austin Friars said between 10 and 15 groups were booking sessions each day during the launch period, and some players were back the next day. The public booking window runs from 7am to 8am and 5pm to 9pm on weekdays, with longer hours of 7am to 9pm at weekends, giving the courts a chance to serve school use and after-work traffic without shutting out the wider community.

Chris Hattam, the headmaster, said the project was designed to make a sport like padel locally accessible and to have an impact on pupils and the wider community. Nicola King, the director of sport, said the response had been “really positive” and described padel as “addictive”, a useful word for a venue that needs players to come back after the novelty has worn off.

The opening also arrives at a moment when padel is still expanding fast across Great Britain. The Lawn Tennis Association said participation more than trebled in 2024 to more than 400,000 players, and by 17 July 2025 there were 1,000 courts across 325 venues nationwide, up from 68 courts in 2019. The LTA said it has invested more than £6 million in padel growth since 2021 as it pushes the sport into public facilities and community settings.

Austin Friars’ padel project sits inside its Expanding Horizons programme, alongside a 3G pitch, an art and design centre and a food technology department. For Carlisle, the first weekend showed more than curiosity. It showed a base of players ready to fill courts if the game is made easy enough to reach.