It was after finding her dad’s racquet as a child that Sophie Cousins first fell in love with tennis
The Ashville College tennis coach has spent her whole life invested in the sport, one way or another.
But it was not until recently that she became immersed in the ever growing sport of padel tennis.
The last 18 months have been a whirlwind for Sophie. From first stepping foot on a padel court for the first time to representing her country at an international tournament.
For her, the sport is addictive and one which she cannot get enough of.
Picking up the racquet
Born and raised in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Sophie was brought up in a sporting family. Her first interaction with tennis came when she found her dad’s old racquet at home.
“I had a very sporting family, so we were always playing games at home.
“I actually found my dad’s old tennis racquet. It was one of those wooden racquets in a press and I asked: ‘what’s this?’ And that’s how tennis started and we used to play all the time in the back garden.”
Her dad took her to a local club and she began to improve.
She began playing in junior tournaments and would travel to places like Solihull, Nottingham and abroad to compete. Among them was the junior Wimbledon pre-qualifiers, which she competed in aged 18.
Sophie would also try to qualify for the Sunday Telegraph Masters tournament, which was held in Boca Raton, Florida, and La Manga in Spain.
“It [the tournament] was such a huge incentive for juniors.”
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She grew up watching the likes of Steffi Graf and Rafael Nadal competing at the highest level of tennis. She still points to them to this day as examples of model professional athletes.
When Sophie turned 18, she began competing in more international tournaments and tried to work her way up the rankings.
She enrolled at Loughborough University, but her progress in tennis was halted by recurring knee injuries.
By this point, she also wanted to focus on her degree. As a result, tennis began to fall by the wayside.
“I had worked so hard to get into Loughborough, that’s where I always wanted to go to do sport science. I did not want to be going off playing tournaments at that stage. I wanted to concentrate on my degree.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be playing tennis as a career. I had contemplated going to America and going through that system and getting a scholarship.”
She continued to coach tennis after university and had a stint as an estate agent in London before moving into teaching, first at Harrogate Grammar School and then at Skipton Girls School.
She moved to Ashville College in Harrogate in 2014. It was here some years later where she was first introduced to the growing sport of padel.
Immersed in padel
Padel tennis first came into the picture 18 months ago.
Angela Crossley, a Wetherby-based tennis coach and now Sophie’s padel partner, first introduced her to the sport.
When Sophie joined Ashville, she struck up a friendship with Angela and they would work offering students sessions in the summer and helping to grow the tennis programme at the college.
One day, Angela brought up the subject of padel with her.
“She asked me: ‘Have you tried padel? I think you would be quite good at it’.
“I remember her hitting a ball, it coming off the back glass and shooting about two metres in front of me and I just looked at her and said: ‘What you expect me to hit that?’”
Sophie and her padel partner, Angela, at the World Championships in Spain.
The sport has surged in popularity across the UK. In Harrogate, padel tennis courts have opened at Hornbeam Park, Harrogate Spa Tennis Club and Harrogate Sports and Fitness Club.
Last year, Ripon Tennis Club unveiled two new courts at a cost of £180,000 following a wave of support from residents and businesses.
To date, the Lawn Tennis Association estimates that the UK has 175,000 active padel tennis players.
The interest in the sport is huge, but, for Sophie, the country is still finding its feet competitively.
“Padel has exploded in this country. But everybody is still very much finding their feet.
“Some players have come from squash, they’re a bit more comfortable with the ball pinging off the walls but they’re not as comfortable at the net. Whereas, in tennis we have got more transferability from the volleying and the net gain. But we need to learn to love and embrace the glass a bit more.”
Fast forward to April this year and Sophie was competing for Great Britain at the International Padel Federation’s Seniors World Championship in La Nucia in Spain.
Team GB women went on to finish a commendable ninth place out of 22 countries.
Joined by Angela, the competition was fierce – not least because the European countries had been familiar with the sport a lot longer than the UK.
For Sophie, the experience was vital and one that she hopes will continue in years to come.
“You watch teams from Argentina and Spain who have been playing for years and they know where the ball is going.
“Whereas we are still playing quite reactive. They just read the ball so well because they have played for years.”
‘Prepare to be addicted’
Sophie hardly plays regular tennis competitively anymore, but still coaches from time to time.
Despite tennis taking a backseat recently, she still describes it as a “sport for life” and one that can be taken up at any age.
When asked whether she finds that she enjoys padel more than tennis, Sophie says the mental side of padel is a huge draw for her.
“I enjoy the mental side of it. I enjoy the strategy of trying to work out how to unpick a problem and how you are going to win the point or manipulate the space.
“It makes you think a lot more than tennis.”
She points out that there is more to padel than just playing the game. There is also a social aspect to it, she says, which stems from its growth in Spain and South America.
“I’d definitely encourage people to have a go at padel. Prepare to be addicted.”
If you have any local sporting figures who you think should be featured in Sporting Spotlight, contact calvin@thestrayferret.co.uk.
Pentagon officer cleared of seriously injuring Harrogate schoolboys
A US colonel has been cleared of causing serious injury by careless driving following a horrific road crash in which two Harrogate schoolboys were badly injured.
Benjamin Oakes, 46, was in a white Vauxhall Astra which pulled out of a junction at the end of the driveway outside Ashville College and collided with the back end of a Ford Ranger pick-up truck, York Magistrates’ Court heard.
The Ford Ranger, driven by Sam Goodall, had swerved in an attempt to avoid the Astra, which clipped the back of his vehicle.
It caused the truck to spin and career across the road, where it mounted a pavement on the opposite side of Yew Tree Lane into the path of two teenagers who were walking along the footpath.
The truck struck both boys and ploughed through a wall at the edge of the college grounds.
Prosecutor Louise Berry said that at least one of the boys, who were both 15 at the time, was “buried under the debris” and both were seriously included. One of them suffered a horrific leg injury after the truck went “three-quarters way through the wall”.
Months in hospital
Giving evidence, one of the boys, who can’t be named for legal reasons, said:
“We got hit through the wall. I think I got knocked out for a bit. We were in the bushes. I just heard (his friend) scream.”
The boy said the truck hit him and he went onto its bonnet before hitting the wall. He said a large piece of wall landed on his left leg.
The teenager, now 16, said he looked over to his friend who saw his own badly injured leg and started screaming and saying he was going to die.
The boys spent 18 weeks and 22 weeks in hospital respectively. One of them needed extensive operations following the collision at about 8.30am on February 2.
Ms Berry said it was the Crown’s case that Mr Oakes, of Tewit Well Avenue, Harrogate, had caused the accident because he hadn’t checked that the way was clear before pulling out of the junction.
She said Mr Oakes’ Astra had been “edging” out of the junction before pulling out completely into the path of the Ford Ranger.
Benjamin Oakes
Mr Oakes, chief of the space policy division for the US joint chiefs of staff at the Pentagon, was charged with two counts of causing serious injury by careless driving but denied the allegations.
Yesterday, following a two-day trial, district judge Adrian Lower found the US military chief not guilty of both charges.
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A female motorist who witnessed the collision described Mr Oakes’ driving in the moments before the crash as “aggressive and inpatient”.
She said he appeared to be “in a rush to leave the junction” before the collision with the pick-up driven by Mr Goodall, who said that following the crash Mr Oakes told him: “I didn’t see you.”
She said she thought the Astra had pulled out “a bit too early…and that’s what caused him to hit the back of the truck”. She added:
“I felt like the truck just appeared out of nowhere in the opposite lane to me.”
She then looked to her right and saw the two schoolboys walking along the footpath. She said:
“The truck was in the wall, so I knew it had gone into (the boys).
“I thought at the time that the truck was going really quick. I got out of the car…and saw that the Astra was damaged as well. I think we were all in shock.”
‘No conclusive evidence’
Peter Minnikin, Mr Oakes’ lawyer, said that neither his client, the female motorist nor the injured boys had seen the truck as it approached the “blind” junction and suggested it could have been travelling too fast.
District judge Adrian Lower said he had “no doubt that this was a traumatic, extremely painful experience for (the two schoolboys)” but that he had to consider the case dispassionately.
He noted that it was “extremely difficult” for motorists to turn right at the “blind” junction, partly due to a pillar or old gatepost at the end of the driveway.
He said there was “no conclusive evidence” that the truck had been travelling too fast or above the speed limit.
Mr Lower, who noted that Mr Oakes had been driving in the UK without incident for four years, said there was every possibility that the truck wasn’t visible to any of the motorists or witnesses even after Mr Oakes had pulled out of the junction.
He said that for those reasons he couldn’t be satisfied that Mr Oakes’ driving was careless or fell below the standard of a competent driver.
Mr Lower found Mr Oakes not guilty on both counts and made an order for the defendant’s costs to be paid from public funds.