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
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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 Yep that is right, a new year means a new UK Racketball Series!
Who is going to be the next in line to become Series Champion and take Alexis Smith off the podium? Who will become our inaugral UK Racketball Doubles Series Champion as the top rated Racketball Doubles player? Lots of new exciting battles and venues in store across the Series and we can't wait to get things rolling! With around 800/900 entrants across our events last year we hope to go bigger and better this time round. So get your name down for our competitions on Sporty HQ via the below link and get involved! UK RACKETBALL TOURNAMENTS Don't forget we try and take loads of action and mid event snaps or all of our tournaments across the Series. You can find these all uploaded on to our Facebook page at:
www.facebook.com/UKRacketballSeries/photos_albums In the meantime, here are a few of our absolute faves from a brilliant year of competition, socialising and just generally spending time with a brilliant bunch of Racketballers! Here's to more of the same in 2024... the uk racketball 2023 series comes to a close with some very worthy series top ranked players!5/12/2023 Our 2023 Karakal UK Racketball Series was topped off by a fantastic day of singles and doubles action at the lovely Grantham Squash Club in Lincolnshire on a foggy and snowy Saturday 2nd December. (Great Racketball weather!) It was a busy day, what with a full Singles Series event running alongside a far busier than usual Doubles tournament (the National Doubles being a Major ranking event with multiple age categories.) There were some fantastic battles throughout the day and the Series rankings final placings came down to the very last match of the tournament! We couldn't have asked for a tighter, more entertaining end to a fantastic Series of matches. The full results can be found on Sporty HQ HERE Now, leading on to our top of the table finishers! Coming down to the tightest of margins, Alexis Smith from Dorset pipped Paul Norton of Yorkshire to the 2023 Series title by the finest of marging. Just 3,560 points to 3,475, the final Doubles match of the National Doubles being the deciding factor! Both players have been incredibly consistent across the Serfies, both being O40s and Doubles specialists, and have regularly battled it out on court. Huge congratulations to Alexis for his persistence across the year and he gets free 2024 Series membership alongside a host of Karakal and Jaguar Nutrition prizes as his reward! Commiserations to Paul for just missing out. He does however come away with a new reward - the Doubles MVP (Most Valuable Player) prize for the most Doubles category wins across the Series! Sitting just below the two in 3rd place was O70s top dog Graham Greensall of Warwickshire, who himself has been a fantastic competitor all the way through, and woiuld have been himself a well deserved winner but for the Doubles expertise of Norton & Smith. We then had (to round out the top 8): 4: Patrick Osborn 5: John Cordeaux 6: Amber Marshall 7: Mike Harris 8: Colin Griggs Very well done to everyone who finished in the prize positions, we will be in touch to sort out your fantastic Karakal and Jaguar Nutrition sponsored prizes ASAP. You can see the full rankings on Sporty HQ below: 2023 Series Rankings We are looking forward to 2024 already! After the New Year we have the first event - the Scottish Open in Glasgow on 27th January, and then roll on monthly (or twice monthly sometimes) from there. Thank you to everyone who took part in our Series, from 12 year olds to 85 year olds we had a brilliantly varied selection of entrants, over 800 in total across all our events. A really great demonstration of how inclusive and fun to participate in the sport is. Some close friends are made and some exciting rivalries are discovered and we can wait to explore it all more going forward. |
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April 2024
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