The Club

A small club, properly dressed.

Some friends, two racquet sports, one committee, and a shared view that a game played badly should at least be played in whites.

Padel, mostly

The club is a group of friends who play padel together, and tennis when the courts and the weather allow. It keeps no rankings anyone will admit to. It has a committee, which is mainly an excuse to stay for lunch.

Padel, for the uninitiated, is played in doubles on an enclosed court of ten metres by twenty, with glass walls that stay in play, a solid perforated racquet and an underarm serve. It was invented in Acapulco, Mexico, at the end of the 1960s. It is easy to start, hard to do well, and ideal for blaming a partner.

Source: Wikipedia, “Padel”

The kit

Every club needs something to be photographed in. The committee settled on a white polo: correct on court, acceptable at lunch, and difficult to argue with. It carries the club’s name on the chest.

The polo is sold to members, to friends of the club, and to anyone else who likes the look of it. Buying one does not make you a member. The committee considered the alternative and found this simpler.

The Committee Polo, £45

Four players in white club polos stand in a garden beside a padel court, a red-brick pavilion behind them. — **Plate II**The same four, closer. Concept photograph; the chest emblem is not final.

Where we play

The club plays at the Hurlingham Club, beside the Thames in Fulham. The Hurlingham is a good deal older and better organised.

The Hurlingham Club opened in 1869, on what are now 42 acres of grounds next to the river.

Source: The Hurlingham Club, “About Hurlingham”

It began as a pigeon-shooting club, which it remained until 1905. Polo followed. The first match there was played in 1874, and in 1875 the club’s polo committee drew up the first formal rules of the game. That committee later became the Hurlingham Polo Association, which is now a separate body.

Sources: Wikipedia, “The Hurlingham Club” · Hurlingham Polo Association, history

Polo at the club ended with the Second World War, when the grounds were requisitioned. The old polo fields later became Hurlingham Park, a public park.

Source: Wikipedia, “Hurlingham Park”

The clubhouse, Hurlingham House, dates from 1760 and was enlarged around 1800. It is listed Grade II*.

Source: British Listed Buildings, “Hurlingham House”

Tennis has been played at Hurlingham since 1877. Padel is a more recent arrival, and the club now hosts an annual padel event.

Sources: The Hurlingham Club, estates brochure (2019) · The Hurlingham Club, padel event