The Court · Issue Five
Five Years Up Front
East Glos in Cheltenham is a members' club of more than 140 years. It let padel in on a vote. Then some of its members paid years of subscriptions in advance to build more of it. Now the rest of the club is working to keep up.
Read the piece →Issue Five · 2nd November 2026 · free in full
A padel publication, born from the coast of southern Spain.
Issue Five goes to East Glos, a members' club of more than 140 years that let padel in on a vote, meets Gillian McIlroy, who came to padel from a life in tennis, and follows a Ribera del Duero wine back to a Rioja house.
"Both times I felt at home. That is an odd thing to feel at somebody else's club."From The Court · Issue Five
In this issue
Three pieces. Free in full.
The complete fifth issue: read any of it, end to end.
The Court
The Second Act
Gillian McIlroy spent 35 years in tennis, as a player and a coach, before a friend got her onto a padel court. This year she played for Scotland, and she is now head coach at a new club in Ayr.
Read →
The Terrace
The Bottle That Crossed the River
The Ribera wine that fixed a loyalty, and the Rioja house behind it.
Read →The Sessions · Episode Five
Alex Robinson
The chair turned round: Andy Galt interviews Alex Robinson, host of The Sessions, on how he came to padel and where it goes next.
Listen →The Circuit · latest edition · №13
Sanchez and Ustero Beat Salazar in Milan, and Then Won the Tournament
Ari Sanchez and Andrea Ustero beat Alejandra Salazar and Aranzazu Osoro 6-4, 6-3 in the last eight in Milan, and two days later won the final. We also carry the Stratford result we said we would.
Read Edition №13 →The Premise
There is no English-language publication for padel that takes the game seriously as culture: its origins, its rituals, the coast it came from. We're building one.
The Alborán is a padel lifestyle publication, out now and free in full. We cover court culture and the things that surround it: the food after the match, the travel, the people who built the game in Spain, the music played in the clubhouse at six in the evening.
The publication is named for a stretch of coastline that points at North Africa: the Alborán Sea, 36.07° N, 3.99° W. The westernmost reach of the Mediterranean. The water beside which the first padel courts in Europe were drawn out, in 1974.
You don't have to play padel to read it. You probably should anyway.
Edited by Andy Galt and Alex Robinson. Published from Bristol and the coast.
Issue Five goes to East Glos, a members' club of more than 140 years that let padel in on a vote, meets Gillian McIlroy, who came to padel from a life in tennis, and follows a Ribera del Duero wine back to a Rioja house.
ISSN 3153-7235. Alborán Social Club Ltd, registered in England and Wales. Company number 17196913.
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See you at the club. · 36.07° N · 3.99° W