In recent years, racket sports have grown massively in popularity. In Gloucestershire, one of the biggest clubs is East Glos Club, which started off as just a tennis club but has now expanded into all racket sports.
The club, which was formed during the reign of Queen Victoria, now has over 2,000 members, Racket Manager and coach Steve Worsley admits that the introduction of different racket sports has been instrumental in the growth of the club.
The club now have 17 all-weather floodlit tennis courts, four squash courts and three floodlit padel courts, along with grass tennis courts in the summer.
“With the introduction of new sports, the audience for Tennis has changed. Historically, the club tended to be more a top and bottom membership with either more senior members or younger players.
“Now, the middle age graphic is much better so with the introduction of paddle and pickleball, we are starting to see more 20-40 year olds join the club.”
East Glos has seen success in all age groups, most recently, having over 60s players represent Gloucestershire in the inaugural over 60s mixed and women’s pairs in the UK Padel County Championship, winning both titles over the weekend.
🏆🎾 3 wins for East Glos in GLTA annual awards
— East Glos Club | Tennis, Squash, Padel, Racketball (@eastglos) March 22, 2024
Andrew Castle has been revealing the winners each day this week. More wins will be revealed in the coming days – could there be another win for East Glos?
Here’s a wrap up of our award wins so far ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/MMAMtmiGqy
The club also offers different types of memberships to support all different players. Worsley said, “There’s different ways to access. You can become a member here, which is a rackets member. With this, you get access to all of the sports as part of the membership, but we also give non-members the chance to join our coaching program.
“The best way into the club is probably to do a little bit of coaching. Once you get a feel for the place and if you like it, then you could go to the next stage and join as a member.”
