Another action packed 2024 UK Racketball Series event took place at Hallamshire Squash and Tennis Club on Saturday 23rd March. This tournament, sponsored by Abbeydale Brewery had the largest entry for a One Day Series event at the venue to date, so it was great to see a load of new faces mixing in with the Series regulars throughout!
Kicking off with the Open this time and a strong draw of 8 players gave us some quality matches across the duration of the day in their groups. Notable upsets being Jason Russel and Paul Norton getting the better of Broxbourne's Champion Colin Griggs in their group stage matches. Last year's Open grade winner and reigning O35s National Champion Mike Tolman proved however to be too strong throughout, not dropping a game across the day, taking out well deserved finalist Norton 2/0. He remains the man to beat in Yorkshire! We had a strong three player Ladies draw, featuring two locals in Holly Moore and Kate Martin alongside tournament organiser Nicky Horn. There were some really good matches in this three way best of 5 game showdown, the local derby between Moore and Martin being particularly close. In the end though Horn showed her quality (having won past titles) and came through vs the others without dropping a game. Martin finishing second after getting past Moore in a tight 3/1. Here's hoping to see the three in Ladies Intercounty action this year! A busy 8 draw in the B Grade featured a good mix of local players and travelling Series regulars. (Kudos to Tommy Meadows for making the trip from Dover!) In the end though the ever solid Steve McClelland battled his way through the day to take the title, though he was pushed well by Tim Millington in the final, where a 2/0 scoreline probably didn;t do him justice! A smaller draw in the 40s nonetheless featured some great best of 5 game matches, with a brutal battle between Jon Davies and Barry Talbot finishing 15/13 in the 5th to the tall Shropshireman. However, neither player could make much headway against the solid gameplay and concentration of Ryan Loska, he took the win without dropping the game and now sits at the top of the 2024 Series rankings after 3 events with Paul Norton. Watch out everyone! The Over 50s category seems to be going from strength to strength, and this event was no exception, with some quality players spread across the three boxes leading into semis and finals. In the end Wase, Muirhead, Wapnick and Davies battled through some very tough encounters to take the semi finals. Craig Wapnick causing a big upset in the age category, taking out Chris Wase 2/1 in a great match, both leaving it all on court. Wase possibly regretting his choice to play the Doubles too! The Over 60s event was also well subscribed with a good mix of local northerners and a few travelling contenders! Both finalists Robin Chipperfield and Graham Holmes were pushed hard in their preliminary matches, having to come through some close 2/1 wins along the way. Chipperfield's variety of spins and tricks combined with his fantastic reach proving too much for Holmes in the final, taking the win 2/0. A strong Over 70s line up featured some heavy hitters in the age group. 4 out of the 6 players all having won either Series or National titles! Ian Graham making a return to the UK Racketball scene after a couple of years out looked in good form, managing to win the event without dropping a game along the way, including taking down current National and British Open Champion Graham Greensall in the final. One to watch out for as the Series unfolds! The ever entertaining and creative Doubles event was as busy as ever, with 9 pairs thrashing it out across two boxes. With some very experienced players in the mix, there were some really competitive games and it certainly seems that the game of Racketball Doubles is really developing in it's own right, based on what we saw on the day! In the end, top seeds and regular partners Chappell/Norton made their way through to the final to face off against Loska/Kershaw. All 4 players having won Series Doubles titles, so some serious pedigree! The top dogs however didn't disappoint, and took a well earned win 2/0. Cementing Norton's place at the top of the inaugral Doubles Series rankings (over Loska in second place!) A great day of games at one of the top clubs in the country. What more could you ask for! A big thanks to Hallamshire for hosting us again and for being such a top partner to the UK Racketball Series. Also to Abbeydale Brewery for their continued sponsorship support of our events there! If you want to check out the day's results you can do so HERE And for the latest on the UK Racketball Series rankings after 3 events HERE And for the Doubles Series Rankings HERE See you all next time!
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The third event of our increasingly busy 2024 Karakal UK Racketball Series kicks off at Hallamshire Squash & Tennis Club in Sheffield on Saturday 23rd March. Hallamshire has been a long time partner of UK Racketball, hosting the North East Open for a number of years, and then more recently the three major British Open Racketball Championship events. The Sheffield club has got a fantastic set up for events with a lovely bar and social area combined with some of the top courts in the UK< so we can't wait to be back there again! We are lucky enough to also have the support from local business Abbeydale Brewery, who's quality range of beers have long rehydrated our hard working Racketballers at Hallamshire. This time they are kindly providing the category winning prizes so some extra bonuses for those who come out on top! Now on to the action and the ones to watch! Another busy and high quality line up in the Open/A Grade event pits last year's Champion and Yorkshire RB stalwart Mike Tolman against a punch line up of challengers. Featuring Broxbourne's A Grade Champion Colin Griggs, other Yorkshire legend Paul Knocker Norton, and previous A event winners Alex Kershaw and Craig Chappell amongst others, this will not be an easy ride for the big left hander! The Ladies Open features another 3 Yorkshire players, locals Kate Martin and Holly Moore will continue their club rivalry alongside tournament organiser Nicky Horn, a previous Ladies event winner herself!
As usual the B Grade is very hard to call, with a lot of regulars all in the mix. Steve McClelland possibly the top dog in this one but he will certainly have his work cut out with 4 tough matches guaranteed along the way. A smaller O40s line up means a 3 way best of 5 game shootout between Barry Talbot, Ryan Loska and Jon Davies, all quality players so some top battles on the cards! Loska in particular looking to get back to winning ways after losing out to Alexis Smith in a high quality Broxbourne final in February. There is another strong draw in the O50s, with 2024 Series event winners Paul Dodds and Andy Hopwood lining up against a whole host of punchy opponents, with the likes of Chris Wase, Nick Billington and Jim Muirhead amongst those looking to get their first Series event win of the season. Going to be some very tired legs after this draw! Another 2024 Series title holder heads up the O60s, with Scottish Open winner Robin Chipperfield at the head of the pack. The likes of Mike Fleming (Scottish Open runner up) and Graham Holmes will be looking to get a win on the board though so he will have to bring out all the backhand topspins he can muster to make it through! A solid draw of 6 in the O70s is great to see, with the double major Champion from 2023 Graham Greensall as favourite, but with Colin Cruickshank making his way down from Scotland plus experienced campaigners Ian Graham and Geoff Wright in the mix, it will be far from straightforward for the Warwickshire man. Finally, another busy quality draw in the Doubles highlights this side of the game going from strength to strength! Top seeds are Norton/Chappell but they will be pushed all the way across the day by some of the other pairs like Wase/Davies, Loska/Kershaw and Talbot/Griggs. A highly entertaining day of Racketball battles on the way then! Can't wait to get things rolling. Keep an eye out on the results as they come in via Sporty HQ here: www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-3-North-East-of-England-Racketball-Open-23rd-March-Hallamshire The strong draw line ups didn't disappoint on Saturday as we had some fantastic battles across all of the categories at Broxbourne Sports Club. Plenty of shocks and suprises from start to finish and some really entertaining match ups too. Check out the draws and results on the below link and read on for our post event wrap up...
BROXBOURNE 2024 In the Over 70's, current National Champion Graham Greensall started his 2024 campaign in imperious form, not dropping a game on the way to winning his first title of this Series. Back from injury and with the bit between his teeth he could well be an early candidate for overall Series success come the end of this year... In the O60's, another National Champion and one-to-beat Patrick Osborn managed to come through a tough draw, battling past local player Richard Hicks in a quality final 2/1, after Hicks himself took down club mate Mark Blake in the semis 2/1. In the Over 50's, it was the turn of the ''youth'' as newly 50 years old Andy Hopwood came through another tough batch of matches, dropping games to Paul Dodds and Mark Banfield on the way to the final, where he faced another Broxbourne legend David Acquet. It was a bit of a topsy turvy match with both players having patches of being on top with some quality hitting, mixed in with some loose errors. Hopwood eventually managing to see it through 2/0 in two tight games. Two of the Series heavyweights were lined up to meet in the O40's final and duly did, in a high quality match of the event. 2023 Series Champion Alexis Smith taking on previous Champion Ryan Loska in a brutally tight 2/1 battle in well over 40 mins of play. Smith's aggressive attacking play eventually managing to break through Loska's relentless retrieval and absorbing play, 11/8 in the 3rd. The fist pump and shout from the usually taciturn Smith highlighting how good a win it was! A very busy 16 draw in the B Grade threw up some great games all the way through and it was great to see some new faces in the mix. In the end it was Dover's Stu Tyler, Essex's Mike Bagguley, Poole's James Dean and Aylesbury's Tristan Vasey who made it through the boxes to the semis, with Bagguley putting Tyler's great run in the comp to an end 2/0 and Vasey battling past Dean 2/0 in a long duel between two very similarly styled players. Another great match ensued in the Final, ending up with Bagguley taking his first UK RB Series title (leaving Vasey rather despondant having missed out for a third time of asking at the Finals stage!) A promotion to the A Grade looks to be on the way... We had a great line up in both the Open and the Doubles categories, with 8 and 16 draws repectively. Some of the top regular Series players came to the party in both the draws and the quality was really high throughout the day. In the Open, Colin Griggs came through his box without dropping a game, a strong 2/0 performance vs Callum Arnott a notable effort. In Box Two, Oliver Staunton continued to show his impressive improvement in the game, as he beat the likes of Norton / Kershaw and Russell to get through to the Final. (Bearing in mind he only moved into A Grade at the start of last year from B!) However, the days efforts took its toll on the legs of the Hampshire man as the relentless Griggs dominated the T and didn't allow him to get any real foothold in the game, taking it 2/0. The Doubles was an incredibly strong line up (perhaps the strongest in depth we have ever had) and it threw up a whole host of upsets along the way. Pre event ones to watch Phipps/Strong and Kershaw/Staunton not even making it out of the group stages! It came down to a Final between two underdog sides, Luke Bishop & David Marshall taking on Patrick Osborn & Gary Naidoo having both recorded some superb wins across the day. In the end the nous of the incredibly experienced (possibly more than anyone on the circuit now!) Osborn and the quality lines and retrievals of Naidoo were too much for the other pair to get past, taking the match and the title 2/0. It was fantastic to see such high quality Doubles play across the day and so many sides involved, getting to the point that we need an A and B Grade Doubles category now! A big thank you to all who took part and the club for hosting us once again (on what was a very busy day generally for the venue.) We look forward to coming back next year! For those who missed out on getting into the event this time, we hope to be able to make it possible for more entries next year. Finally, if you want to catch up on some of the matches, you can see the World Squash Federation's (thanks Pat Osborn) coverage of the event Court 1 matches on this Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_w3U7IewDE&list=PLaEQmbckDBIs8f92jlMNubfqSAWgXbeRI Our first event of 2024 was the Scottish Open in Glasgow at the wonderful Newlands Tennis and Squash Club on Saturday 27th January. Last year was the first time we visited the club, and we had a blast meeting up with our RASTA Scottish Racketball cousins and doing battle and were looking forward to the return!
It was great to have a good group of English UK Racketballers travelling up to compete and also see some new Scottish faces at the same time. Positive signs for the growth of the game both sides of the border! In the Over 70s we had a really competitive draw of 5 players, all very similar standard. In the end it came down to a three way tie between Joe Hely, Chris Quick and Trevor Musson, all with 4 wins and 1 loss between them! Hely sneaking the title based his on games won/loss % over Quick. Some quality games in this category acoss the day with some incredible court coverage too. The O60s had 9 entrants across two boxes so was another very busy category. Robin Chipperfield showing his status as top seed by coming through to take the title, but not before he was pushed all the way by Mike Fleming, battling through 2/1 11/8 in the 5th game in a really entertaining and free flowing final. The Over 50s and 40s were a little quieter in comparison, both being boxes of 4, but this didn't stop there being some good match ups. In the O50s Paul Dodds got his first title of 2024 on the board, coming through a competitive group, with fellow UK Racketball Northerner Kevin Dudley finishing in 2nd. The O40s feautured two of the top players in that age category, as Ryan Loska and Paul Norton took down their Scottish opponents to meet in the Final. Norton to date has never taken a game off of Loska, until now, where in probably the match of the day they fought it out in a brutal showdown. Loska eventually coming through 2/1 winner, 8/11, 11/9, 11/9 to take the title. If this is anything to go on for the rest of this season we could have some real treats in store! The B Grade was a busy line up as always, with 13 players involved, and it was great to see a load of new Scottish entrants in this category. In the end, Neil Bennett and Jesse Mills both came through their groups to meet in the final, with Bennett's fast paced positive hitting getting him through the control and long reach of Mills in a (tighter than the scores suggest) 2/0 win. We did have a Ladies box of 5 initially but with two (sisters) dropping out due to illness we were reduced to a box of 3, with all playing best of 5 game matches. Another new face to the scene - Sabrina Tengku Nur came through as Champion over Newlands local players Cara Young and Niamh Wilson, her quality movement and retrievals being particularly impressive throughout. Fingers crossed we see the three in action in future events! Finally the Doubles and the Open. There was one standout pairing out of the 5 teams in the Doubles - Bedwell & Norton, and they lived up to their billing, not dropping a game throughout the event to take the title (and the lead in the new Doubles Series rankings for 2024.) They were pushed by the eventual runners up Manson & Hindmarch, whose knowledge of each other's game and tactics makes them a very experienced and crafty team. We had a really competitive Open draw again this year, with a good mixture of local and travelling players involved. Mike Harris had an entertaining game with Newland's Fraser McCann in his box, scraping past 13/11, 11/9, and Matt Bedwell also was pushed hard by his local team mate Mark Ford, dropping a game on the way to a 2/1 win against the experienced campaigner. In the end it meant a British Nationals Final rematch between the two player coaches, and despite Bedwell rocketing off to a 5/0 lead in the 1st game, Harris was able to slowly reel him back in to take a high quality 2/0 win in 40 minutes of open and varied play. A really great day of games at a top venue and fun group of players. Thanks to Keith Gristwood for promoting the event around his RASTA (Racketball Around Scotland) guys and getting them involved. Fingers crossed we can keep getting more of our UK Racketball and RASTA players iplaying in each other's events! Thank you also to Newlands and Matt Bedwell for hosting us so well and making us so welcome. We can't wait for next year! You can find the full draws and results below on Sporty HQ. We also kept the camera rolling through the day so have loads of pictures and videos of the action for you to check out on our UK Racketball Facebook page. Finally, one of our Scottish Racketball compatriots Mike Sutherland did a fantastic job in doing a two camera filming job on the Open Final between Matt Bedwell & Mike Harris, including adding a scoreboard to the footage. Check it out below on Youtube to see some top level Racketball action in a quality 40 minute best of 3 game battle! SPORTY HQ: SCOTTISH OPEN 2024 FACEBOOK: ALBUM YOUTUBE OPEN FINAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVRvIJO6xyY Scottish Open 2024 Preview!
Our first event of 2024 is the Scottish Open in Glasgow at the wonderful Newlands Tennis and Squash Club. Last year was the first time we visited the club, and we had a blast meeting up with our RASTA Scottish Racketball cousins and doing battle. In the Open we have last year's National Championships finalists in opposite boxes as Mike Harris and Matt Bedwell aim to revisit their England/Scotland duel once more. Neither have straightford run ins though, with both having some quality opposition in their groups. A large B Grade entry has a great mix of Scottish and English players in it and with such a variety of players it is hard to call the favourite. It will be a new Champion this time round however as last year's Paul Norton is playing the O40s category. Leading in to that, Norton faces the start of the full Series return of the relentless Ryan Loska, who will be a very tough nut to crack in the first event of the year. Coupled with some Scottish interest too this should be a good challenge to last year's Series runner up! The Over 50s features a half-n-half of Scottish and English talent too, with Series regular Paul Dodds facing some interesting challenges from the likes of Mike Sutherland, Paul Geri and Kevin Dudley. Tough one to call this one! A solid 60s line up has Robin Chipperfield, Mike Fleming and Collis Sheik as it's top trumps in the two boxes, however with a large Scottish interest here too we could be looking at some upsets along the way. Last year's British Racketball Open Finalist Joe Hely is the one to watch in the O70s draw, but with there being a draw of 5 players its going to be a good test for the stamina of all involved as they battle it out for 4 matches each through the day. It is great to have a busy Ladies draw, with 5 Scottish players taking part, junior and adults alike. Top work Matt Bedwell and the Newlands team for getting a good Ladies uptake and we hope this is positive signs for things to come going forward! Finally, the Doubles entry features 5 quality pairings, all looking to make an early impression on the new Doubles Series rankings for 2024. Top dogs have to be Norton/Bedwell, but they will face stiff challenges from the experienced pairings of Dodds/Loska and Manson/Hindmarch. All to play for! You can find the full draws and schedule below on Sporty HQ. As always we will be trying to keep the photo updates and live streaming coming throughout the day, so please tune in on our UK Racketball Facebook page or Instagram to keep in touch with the action! SCOTTISH OPEN 2024 |
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