From the BBC'S Sussex news site

[squashyhat]

Surely it should be racquet?

Possibly, though maybe it is going to be particularly noisy? Or, they’re going to be charging protection money?

Google tells me that it’s a Spanish sport and is racket.

I agree that it feels as though it should be racquet, as in tennis, but probably because it’s Spanish, it’s different.

According to Wikipedia, tennis began in France, which makes sense when you think of the score deuce. Wikipedia spells it as racket, but I wonder if that's an Americanism

😁

It’s been racket for a long time.

'A padel and racket sports tournament' it says, lower down. I hope I've remembered that correctly for 5 seconds between reading it and typing this post. Padel?
Is it like the time when Summer Fairs tended to become Summer Fayres?

Padel is kind of a cross between tennis and squash, and is played with a racket not racquet for some reason. Mind you, the Middle English derivation, along with that of almost all Northern European counties, would give you racket as the correct spelling I think. The pretensions of later generations took on the French / Spanish derived spelling. As such, with (generally misplaced) pretension being a byword for aspirational MN posters the use of racquet at all times is to be encouraged, even when incorrect ;)

Thank you. I haven't met this padel before. I was wondering if it was an alternative to paddle but seemingly not, from what you say.

Shouldn’t it be BBC Sussex’s too?

No, it's a sport in it's own right - and one that is very much 'of the moment'!

www.thetimes.com/sunday-times-100-fast-growth/company-feature/article/padel-companies-xbglmgqw7

I don't think so, no. Because it's the Sussex News section of the BBC's website isn't it?

Oh, I see, the UK's latest obsession. It's like the well-known rappers whose deaths are news on BBC text - I realise I am not 'of the moment'.

The internet says that both ‘racquet’ and ‘racket’ are acceptable spellings but that ‘racket’ is more commonly used in the USA.

To be fair it’s a middle class European (in the geographic sense) obsession not a British one, though of course the effects are the same!!