A county first could be served up in Bordon as a club is set to become a hotspot for two fast-growing racket sports.

It’s game, set and match fortraditional tennis at the BOSC for now as the two courts are getting a new use.

The existing all-weather surface at the Bolley Avenue site will remain with a pair of floodlit pickleball and padel tennis courts being created.

The latter is the world’s fastest-growing sport and is a described as a mixture of squash and tennis with the court being smaller and surrounded by fencing.

Pickleball is not too dissimilar to tennis but the ball is made of hard plastic and the rackets are effectively oversized table tennis padels.

The conversion is the brainchild of Annie Wakefield and Jasper Allen with a temporary change of use application being recently approved by EHDC.

The pair felt the under-used courts were ripe for conversion and believe the sports could explode in Whitehill & Bordon. They also claim the two-sport court set up could be the first in the district or county.

“We had to give a detailed breakdown of how little the court was used to the Lawn Tennis Association to support our application and they agreed,” said Annie.

“There is a growing young population here and we didn’t want to do this in Haslemere or anywhere exclusive. We wanted it to be inclusive and I’m really keen to promote this with the local community and schools.”

“I think it’s going to be a real boost for the community,” said Mr Allen, head coach at Grayshott Tennis Club.

“It’s quite difficult to find the ideal place to put up padel courts but this site is perfect.”

A big launch possibly involving the GB Padel Tennis team is planned within the coming weeks.