In this issue
Eight pieces. Free in full.
The complete second issue: read any of it, end to end.
From the Editor
The Same Number Twice
Two open matches at the same club in Govan, booked seven weeks apart at the same level. They were not the same game, and they were not close.
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The Court
People Make Padel
Racket Barn had been open five months when I got there. What it has built in that time is not a membership. It is a way in.
Read →The Court
A Pool of Eight
Padel joined the World Anti-Doping Code in July. The international testing pool is being built at eight athletes, and the figure came from the sport's own testing agency.
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The Terrace
The Standing Room
Two rooms in Antón Martín, five minutes apart: a tiled taberna that has poured since 1908, and the market kitchen the locals steer you to.
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The Body
The Infusion
A wood-fired sauna on a trailer above the Avon, a cold river below it, and ten minutes of heat and scent that a sceptic did not expect to enjoy.
Read →The Archive
The walled-court lineage
Padel is the youngest of the games played off a wall. The wall was there eight centuries before padel found it.
Read →The Sessions · Episode Three
London P1
Recorded courtside at the Premier Padel P1 in London: the tournament as it happened, the crowd, and the British game.
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The B Sides · Track Two
UK Padel Has a Ratings Problem
Ratings decide who you play with and whether an open match is worth the money. So what happens when nobody trusts the number?
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