Mercedes pips Coutts, KPMG, Deloitte and Howden at Evelyn Partners Padel Cup
Sports stars, professional padel players and some of the City’s keenest racket-swingers descended on Canary Wharf last week for the second Evelyn Partners Padel Cup.
More than 150 people filled out high-end club Padium for an afternoon of friendly yet fierce competition between Square Mile firms followed by an evening programme featuring coaching clinics, an exhibition match and a discussion featuring famous names from rugby union and cricket.
Among the companies in the 12-team mixed-gender tournament were Coutts, KPMG, Deloitte, Howden, Irwin Mitchell, Russell-Cooke and the sponsor, Evelyn Partners.
“Our promise is to help our clients embrace what’s next. And what’s next in sport? Undoubtedly it is padel,” said Evelyn Partners head of growth Rachael Smith.
“We know how important making in-person connections are to doing business together, and networking is key for all of these City firms. Padel has become a really social way of doing that.
“Historically, lots of networking has happened on the golf course, which requires you taking a whole day out of the office and is quite exclusive, particularly to women or those who’ve never learnt to play before. This is about bringing that inclusivity, a more fast-paced nature, right into the heart of the city where people are.”
Such was the internal competition at Evelyn Partners for a place on its team that more than 20 employee trialists had to be whittled down to two men and two women.
“We’re pretty competitive about being the best in the market, and that is no different on the padel court,” said Smith.
Evelyn Partners pipped Coutts to third place in a battle of financial titans, while Mercedes-Benz beat marketing company TTB Sport to the top prize in the final.
Sam Billings, Alex Goode, Max Malins hold Q&A
The pros took centre stage for the second part of the day, as coaches put more than 50 amateurs through their paces on all eight courts before England cricketer Sam Billings and England rugby stars Alex Goode and Max Malins joined padel player Victoria Nicholas for an elite athlete Q&A session.
NHS doctor Nicholas also teamed up with Rafa Vega to take on fellow pros Alex Loughlan and 16-year-old prodigy Chloe De La Mare in an exhibition match while guests enjoyed food and drinks ranging from isotonic and caffeinated to alcoholic.
Tournament director Charlie Grave said the standard of this year’s play had been driven up by the surge in people taking up the sport, with the UK now boasting 1m active players.
“The groundswell of normal people playing padel has really helped. It’s not quite the daunting prospect that it used to be,” he said.
“We’ve doubled in numbers, both competing and then a whole wave of people now want to come and have lessons with the Team GB players. They want to come after work.”
Having firmly established the Evelyn Partners Padel Cup as an annual fixture in the Square Mile’s sporting calendar, Grave hopes that future years could see satellite tournaments around the country.
“I think what we’d like to look at next year is how we could make this a little bit more national,” he said. “So in other words, regional offices can compete. And it could become the finals in London, rather than just being all about London.”