England legend Joe Marler returned to Worthing Rugby Club to open brand new padel courts – and he entertained crowds by taking part in an exhibition match.
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00:00Swap end!
00:01Swap end?
00:02Yeah.
00:03Is that why we're losing?
00:04Yes!
00:09Yeah, I'm Tim Foster, CEO of Paddle Project UK.
00:12Amazing, and what can you tell us about what's happening today at Worthing Rubber Club?
00:15Well, this is the latest addition to the Paddle Project UK portfolio.
00:19We've got a great setup here with four brand new paddle courts at Worthing Rubber Club.
00:23And how amazing is it to have this in the area?
00:26And obviously it's a growing sport, isn't it?
00:28How important is it to maybe introduce it to people that haven't tried it before and try and get people involved?
00:32Yeah, we see ourselves as a community-focused company.
00:35So right at the heart of our ethos is delivering affordable sport to people in the community.
00:41Worthing Rubber Club are a great partner for that.
00:43They've got about 600 youth team members across all the age groups from under 7s all the way through to under 16s.
00:49They've got great links into local schools, local youth groups, so it's superb for us.
00:55Brilliant catchment area.
00:56Yeah, absolutely.
00:57I mean, obviously today you've obviously had Joe Marley here.
00:59That's fantastic.
01:00Yeah, big Joe.
01:01So that's been awesome.
01:02Yeah, he's great fun.
01:03And also, you know, he brings a big crowd with him everywhere he goes.
01:05So that's been awesome.
01:06And he's great fun to play with as well.
01:08Yeah, no, absolutely.
01:09I was going to say, what was that experience like?
01:11Yeah, pretty cool.
01:12So I used to play a bit of rugby a bit before Joe's time, but yeah, great crack.
01:16Really good fun.
01:17Yeah, and it must be great to have the crowds of people here to really kind of enjoy it and probably spread the word as well.
01:22Get people into the club and trying out the paddle.
01:25Yeah, I think as a paddle company, every paddle company have got a bit of a responsibility to spread the message of paddle because it's still a sport that's certainly in its genesis.
01:33So the more people you can get to understand actually what paddle is, then the more everybody benefits from it.
01:38And yeah, it's a great sport.
01:39Really easy to pick up and you can be enjoying it within five minutes.
01:42Okay.
01:43Hi.
01:44Yeah.
01:45My name's Adam.
01:46I'm from Paddle Projection UK.
01:47I've been here at Worthing Rugby Club.
01:49I'm here at the launch for our paddle courts.
01:52We've got big crowds so far here today.
01:55We've got Joe Marley coming later on to come and be looking for us.
01:59Paddles at the moment are the most strong sport in their country.
02:03It's the most strong sport for a reason.
02:05It's super simple.
02:06It's fun.
02:07It's social.
02:08It's competitive.
02:09We've managed to create a business model that enables people to book courts on a play-and-play basis.
02:15There's no membership.
02:16There's no subscriptions.
02:17There's no joining fees.
02:18There's no notice periods that you need to give.
02:21It's just a play-and-play.
02:22You can book all through the app, which is Playtomic app, which you can book all your courts on.
02:27Rapid Highs are on there.
02:29Tours you can buy on there as well.
02:31It's just a really fun game, really social game, really easy game to get involved in.
02:35We're going to be running lots of social sessions throughout the week where people can just come along as a one or a two
02:41and join in with lots of different people, like-minded people, people with similar abilities to them.
02:45Watch their network grow and also just come along and join them all in as well.
02:50So come on down to Paddle Project UK at Running Rugby Club.
02:54It'd be great to see you.
02:55That's fantastic.
02:56I mean, joining a new sport, it can be daunting.
02:58And lots of sports people have played when they were children.
03:01So it can be quite daunting to join as an adult.
03:04Paddle's a new sport in the UK.
03:06Everyone's a beginner.
03:07So come along.
03:08So if you haven't played rugby before, even if you have, it's really social.
03:11It's really easy to get to grips with.
03:13We run lots of introduction sessions where we go through a lot of the basics when it comes to how to hold a grab hit,
03:18how to hit certain shots.
03:19But like I said, it's a great way of networking, a great way of staying fit and healthy as well.
03:24And yeah, just a lot of fun.
03:26I feel honoured to do this.
03:31And even more so with these.
03:34I've got Amazon Basic through and across it.
03:39That basically sums up my ability on the paddle course.
03:44So I think it's quite good.
03:46Yeah.
03:57Yes, thank you.
03:58Yeah, where's the cheer for that one?
04:00One, two, three.
04:05Now we are aggressive.
04:07Aggressive flag.
04:10It's all yours.
04:11Yours again.
04:12No.
04:13Yes!
04:14Oh!
04:15No!
04:16No!
04:17No!
04:18No!
04:19No!
04:25Yes, Eric.
04:27Yes, Eric.
04:28Yes, Eric.
04:30Thank you again.
04:33First ball.
04:35All right.
04:36Well, my last-party, first ball.
04:37Yeah!
04:38Yeah!
04:39Yeah!
04:40Wow, it's so big!
04:41Are you going to start, right?
04:42Yeah, no, good.
04:43That's what we want.
04:44Oh, that's it!
04:45Oh!
04:46Oh!
04:47Oh!
04:48Oh!
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04:52Oh!
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04:56Oh!
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05:06Oh!