Chichester Racquets & Fitness Club

Negative experience: I’ve been a naughty boy, apparently… I’ve been a member of this ‘club’ (it’s actually a business) for 25 years. The tennis, squash and padel courts are awesome – top quality – playing on them is fantastic. Steve’s review below, I believe, is partially accurate where he states the club is ‘elitist and pretentious’ (I’d also add cliquey); however, it is unfair to label all the members as such, the vast majority of staff and members are thoroughly decent people – it’s the current crop of leadership and management that, I believe, have developed a concerning authoritarian bias that is creeping into the culture of the club - they appear to have lost sight of the club’s values (see my example, last paragraph below). Like most people, I think, we crave first-class leadership – it just makes life easier, more fun. As a well-known leadership coach once said: “Most leaders think their organisation is values-based. They think everyone knows, supports, and lives them every day. This assumption creates most of their problems. Don’t think so? Ask your team to list your organisation’s core values by memory. If they can’t, I would ‘bet the farm’, most of your leadership challenges are value-related issues”. I would ‘bet the farm’ the management and leadership of CRAFC are unable to recite them either – just a laminated poster on the reception wall, looking impressive, gathering dust. The club’s reply to Steve where it states: “We aim to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for all players”, is not my personal (or my wife’s) experience – don’t believe it, I would say the statement is wholly inaccurate – it’s just been written to look good on Google. My experience of authoritarian culture at the club. The board, in July 2024, changed the parking rules whereby full-subscription members no longer have 24/7 access to the club’s car park (now just 4 hours per day). On occasion, it was difficult to find a parking space in the car park, which is clearly frustrating if you’ve booked a court. However, instead of phasing in a reasonable solution to enable members to make other arrangements, the chairman gave just one month’s notice to everyone – and offered no reduction in membership fee for loss of facility (which isn’t cheap at £65 per month). The chair’s response to me: “if you don’t like it, you can leave” aside from the obvious charm, many would say this was fair enough; however, his comments do not match the club’s values. On top of that, a new ‘rule’ was introduced whereby a ‘fine’ “may be imposed” for parking infringements: non-payment means your membership is suspended. Even a first year GCSE law student will realise the obvious breach of consumer regs. there. “Instead of moaning on social media, why don’t you complain to the club; or just leave”, I hear you say. Good point: because I care more about the club than I care about the management and leadership. The club’s complaints procedure is a farce, laughable even. Making a complaint against the management or leadership is a road to nowhere: you’re white-washed, or, as I have found, simply ignored. The complaints procedure starts and ends with the manager’s opinion – no ombudsman; no ADR; no local LTA; and no facility to escalate an issue to the national LTA, despite the complaints policy implying you can (I know, I tried). Remember I said ‘cliquey’? See the attached photos. One is of the note about me on the club’s CRM system, it reads: “Gary has been issued a parking fine and [membership] card has been disabled. We can reactive card once paid, but no verbal/written correspondence to be entered into – all matters to go through [manager’s name] solicitors, of which he has the details”. Charming… but they still take my membership fee. The second image is a letter from their solicitor informing me I have £10 to pay. The club’s manager instructed a solicitor at £350 per hour of membership money to issue a £10 ‘fine’. Almost unbelievable; however, I refer you back to the values paragraph above… Result: multiple counts of litigation against the club are now in process.

Fantastic experience: Marvellous club, friendly players

Negative experience: Have been playing Padel for 6 month abroad before moving back.. called to enquire about playing here only to find out that you are MASSIVELY restricted unless you’re will to join the club as a member for approx £65/month. Yes you’re able to book a court and play but the reason I fell in love with this sport was the social aspect and to meet people! As a non member youre not allowed to join social events, tournaments or chat groups like most other clubs. So unless you already have people you know to play with you’re pretty much alienated. So disappointing! Luckily I was able to find another club that is far more welcoming to non members and quickly made a bunch of new friends to play with! If anyone else is equally frustrated to how elitist this pretentious club is and wants to join part of the Padel community and fall in love with how friendly this growing sport is I highly recommend “the hub” in Crawley. Great prices and full assess to all the features and facilities this club only allows members assess too

Fantastic experience: Great venue. Very good cafe/bar. Squash courts very warm!

Fantastic experience: Very friendly club. Super facilities. Lovely staff

Positive experience: Pleasant atmosphere. Buzzing.

Negative experience: Expensive! No jacuzzi!!!

Fantastic experience: Kind staff and quality facilities. Tracey on reception was particularly helpful finding us a tennis court with floodlights! Great bar upstairs for a pint after your match.

Fantastic experience: Lovely club and good facilities. Friendly staff

Negative experience: I felt very unwelcomed when I arrived staff were rather rude and rushing me, and the small gym was dirty with sweat not being cleaned and weights everywhere bad experience, tennis court was fine tho

Fantastic experience: Great club with tennis and squash courts, gym and restaurant.

Fantastic experience: Business visit to carry out first aid training session.

Negative experience: Never been so how do i know

Fantastic experience: Great racquets club.. Lovely people.. what a gorgeous club...

Fantastic experience: I spent two weeks here in 2005. Best breakfast sandwiches that side of the Atlantic. Ask for the sausage, bacon, egg and cheddar. However, I warn against eating it immediately before playing - as I often did. Ingest at your discretion.

Fantastic experience: Everything is spot on.. highly recommended.

Fantastic experience: Great club friendly staff and people

Positive experience: We went down to view the club sadly just after we had been placed back in Tier 4. Usually we would wait to leave a review but even under these circumstances we felt something should be said. We were treated by Toby and instantly felt we had found what we were looking for, a family oriented club that had the facilities we are looking for, racquet sports to enjoy as a family and individually with classes and clubs, a gym for staying fit, spa area to unwind and relax those muscles after (however we have not seen these areas but can't wait to go back and view them). Also to have a restaurant and coffee are on site is perfect for that socialising and relaxing after a good work out, competitive match or friendly game. Toby was knowledge, extremely helpful and friendly and realised and could help cater to all our needs from my Daughter who is looking to learns and stay fit, to my wife looking for regular exercise and friendly atmosphere and myself looking for a challenge and to push myself. Having only recently moved to this area as a family we are looking for somewhere we can spend time s a family but also meet other like minded people. We will definitely be going back and I think can safely say will be joining as members. I shall revisit this review after we have seen the rest of the club and joined. Thanks again to Toby and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Positive experience: If you are a tennis fan they will accommodate

Positive experience: good club, my only gripe is some of the reception staff could be a bit friendlier and have sometimes been ignored by them or had a "not my job" attitude :/

Fantastic experience: Wednesday Zumba Class

Fantastic experience: Very good

Fantastic experience: Such a great place. A very well kept and clean gym and changing room. The staff are always so so so helpful and I couldn't recommend this place enough! Students also get discounted rates with the agreement that they can't use the gym between 5 and 7.30 which I think is fair considering you pay alot less than other members!

Positive experience: Great club, location, facilities, social events

Positive experience: Nice place... Good facilities.

Fantastic experience: Super club, great for young families starting out in tennis, and fitness !

Fantastic experience: Great club, great facilities and friendly staff and members.

Fantastic experience: Great club with good standard of squash and amazing facilities

Fantastic experience: Great friendly club with some very talented players

Fantastic experience: Friendly with good clean facilities

Fantastic experience: My fav racquet club ever.

Fantastic experience: Excellent facilities for squash, tennis & fitness. Friendly and welcoming staff.

Fantastic experience: Welcoming club with excellent facilities

Fantastic experience: Friendly club with all facilities that you could want!

Fantastic experience: Family club with great facilities, including Padel tennis. The finest deck in town on a sunny summer evening

Fantastic experience: I've been a member for a year now and it is exceptional. The staff are friendly, the cafe is lovely and there is always a free tennis court or squash court not in use.

Fantastic experience: I've been a member of the club since about 2001, I played my first squash game there. It's a very social place and even if you don't have anyone to play squash, racket ball or tennis with, there are internal leagues you can join and sometimes drop-in sessions. Over all a very friendly place and great bar and restaurant area