Road to Selection for Cardiff 2025 Update!

With five selection events gone for this period, we can have a look to see who sits in the top 10 ranking positions for RTS 2025. 

There is still a long way to go before the window closes, with the Welsh Open 5th July 2025 being the final event in the selection process. That leaves a possible SIX weekends of UK Racketball events open for players to scoop up precious points toward their final totals. (A potential 120 ranking points maximum to be collected.) The top FOUR ranked players at the end of the process get automatic England selection, with the the next two on non travelling reserve duty in case of injury or illness. 

Some big names in there, and we can say for sure that England will definitely be packing a few punches across the age categories when the time comes to do battle against our fellow nations. 

Can't wait to see who manages to make the cut! Keep pushing everyone.

Any queries about the process at all please contact Mike at [email protected]

Saturday 2nd November saw us to return to Lee on Solent Squash & Tennis Club for the penultimate 2024 KarakaUK Racketball Series event! This South coast 6 court venue has long had a great Racketball history and we were made to feel really welcome.

With another maxed out entry list (increased due to the luxury of having a 6th court to use) it was another busy day of black ball battling, with each entry list well subscribed. Once again it was lovely to see some new faces from the region in the mix, from our local Ladies entrants, to players from 2025 new venue Trojans in Southampton and more! With loads of smiling faces at the end of the day we hope that the newcomers enjoyed their time at the event and will be back for more next year.

Now on to the action! 

O70s: A brilliant day of best of 5 game battles saw Graham Greensall fight his way to another title, taking down O75 National and Open Champion Larry Grover in a quality 3/2 Final win. Both players belying their age with some superb court coverage and play.

O60s: With some very tight games in the lead up to the final, Banfield/Holmes, Banfield/Chipperfield and Chipperfield/Appleby in particular all going the distance, all roads led to Osborn. Pat the Essex man once again proving to be the one to beat in the Series as he took the win without dropping a game across the day. Great to see another 16 draw for the O60s though for a Series comp, currently consistently or best subscribed age category!

O50s: This event was very much the survival of the fittest, with some absolutely brutal group stage and playoof matches testing the players to their physical limits. However regardless of the battling with the rackets, it was fantastic to see the spirit and friendliness that the matches were played in. Zero aggro and plenty of laughs shared. When it came down to it, Paul Dodds taking tough 2/1 wins vs Billington & Buckle, and Steve Smith 2/1 vs Andy Hopwood in particular. Hopwood and Smith having some horrendously tough rallies on the show court! Inevitable the final also went the distance, Smith somehow managing to pull himself together for one last effort to see off the solid Dodds, taking the title 2/1 in the last match of the day in front of a well lubricated crowd.

O40s: A punchy group of 5 Series regulars gave us some great games across the day. In the end Loska vs Chappell was the de facto final, and the Shropshire man managed to register his second win of the season vs the current Series top dog Loska, winning 2/0. This doesn't do the quality (or length) of the game justice though, as they fought it out for nearly 40 mins of top class Racketball, both constantly trying to find new and varied ways to breach each others defences.

​B Grade: Another busy B Grade of 12 players saw some new local faces in the mix alongside some of our Southern regulars. It came down to a local semis showdown between Paul Sitch from IOW, James Dean from Bournemouth, and Callum Greasley & Matt Compton from Trojans in Southampton. The two team mates making it through to the final, where in a bit of an upset win, Compton took Greasley down to win his first UK Racketball Series title! (Some say a tactical mid week loss helped install a sense of overconfidence!)

Ladies: We had 6 Ladies in the draw this time round and three new faces in the mix which was lovely to see. This was a really well fought out event with several 5 set matches across the day, including a great battle between Brokenshire & Billington in the group stage going 3/2 to Ethel in her first Series comp. The final was a high quality game as well between Helen Rees from Grantham and the second Lee on Solent local entrant Lorna Russell. Rees saving a match ball in the 4th game to force a 5th, but Russell was undeterred and finished strongly to take her first UK Racketball Series title in her first event. Really great to have some more new ladies players involved and we hope to see them more in 2025!

Open: It was a bit of a topsy turvy Open draw with two on the day drop outs (Norton car troubles, and Smith injury issues) meaning that the draw evolved on the fly a little bit. This didn't stop the matches from being close and entertaining, with the likes of Calli Smith vs Craig Lloyd and an IoW showdown between Olly Staunton vs Callum Arnott being two of the picks of the draw. Indeed it was Smith & Staunton who managed to fight their way through to the final, where the consistently improving Wiltshire man was able to take his first Series title to date with a quality win over the very consistent and hard to break down Staunton. Another young player quickly getting to grips with the game is great to see and it will be interesting to see what 2025 brings!

Doubles: With the Series Doubles rankings being blown wide open by Paul Norton (currently #1) not being able to make it to the event, Patrick Osborn (#2) and Ryan Loska (#3) both had a chance to catch up points leading in to the National Doubles Championships later this month! With another punchy line up of teams across the three groups the guys had their work cut out, but luckily had called in some heavy hitting support, with Craig Chappell partnering Loska, and Mike Harris teaming up with Osborn.
Both pairs were tested on their way to the final, with Loska/Chappell being pushed by the father/son Smith duo, and Harris/Osborn having to work hard against the Trojans duo of Greasley/Compton, both in the semis. Both pairings grinding out 2/1 victories. 
In the final, Harris/Osborn managed to stay solid throughout a tight first game, squeezing it 11/9 after some very taxing and open rallies. In the second game Loska and Chappell were generous with their error count, and their opponents managed to keep up the pressure to see through an 11/3 second game win to take the title 2/0. 

Thanks to everyone who made it such a fun day, it went really well and there was great support and a lovely atmosphere throughout. Thanks to Alex Kershaw and the Lee on Solent Club staff for hosting us so well and making us feel so welcome. Can't wait to be back there for 2025!

Your 2024 Lee on Solent Open winners are below:

O70 - Graham Greensall
O60 - Patrick Osborn
O50 - Steve Smith
O40 - Craig Chappell
B Grade - Matt Compton
Ladies - Lorna Russell
A Grade - Calli Smith
Doubles - Harris/Osborn

Full results from the day here: https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-12-South-East-of-England-Racketball-Open-2nd-November-Lee-on-Solent

With just one event to go in the 2024 Series it is all going down to the wire. Ryan Loska officially cannot be caught in the Series singles ranking now but that still leaves places 2-6 up for grabs and there are plenty of permutations possible there. The Doubles however is very exciting with top spot up for grabs still for Norton, Loska and Osborn pending the final results of the National Doubles Champs! Check out the rankings leading into the final event below:

Series Singles rankings: https://www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1727

Series Doubles rankings: ​www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1995

As part of an attempt to start recognising those clubs, people and sessions that spread the game of Racketball across the UK, we will start doing a monthly feature highlighting the great work that is going on!

First up is Hannah Hodgson's Laugh & Smash sessions at Marple Squash Club in Stockport, aimed at making Racketball a fun, friendly and accessible sport for Women's players of all ages and abilities. In Hannah's words...

''Laugh and Smash connects wellness and fitness in a fun, social way. Our women’s only programme has transformed racketball at Marple Squash in Stockport and we hope to roll out the magic across more clubs… like laughter, it's certainly infectious! We’ve seen more women attend Laugh and Smash than any squash coaching programme we’ve put on. It’s quite astonishing! 

Laugh and Smash was created from chatting with women in a group about what we wanted from a fitness class. We wanted daytime, we wanted fitness and something new. We wanted indoors. We wanted opportunity to meet people and chat. And we wanted fun! We advertised a 6 week pilot and it sold out to 15 fabulous women within 2 hours. It had taken 6 years to grow the squash club by that many female members previously. 

So what is it and what’s the secret? 
We start off with a 20 minute warm up session of Laughter Yoga, courtesy of Claire Scott, a Laughter practitioner (yes, really!)  from Feel Good Communities CIC. If you’ve never tried it, do. Laughter and mindful breathwork for the body and soul. It’s a fantastic icebreaker, stress reliever and leveller. 

Then on to the racketball. Let’s face it, women like to be social. Our group is based on building a strong, connected community of women. We can’t do that by keeping quiet. My squash coach always told me I’d be much better if I stopped chatting. One of the great things about racketball is you don’t need to keep warming the ball up - so we have plenty of time for chatting AND playing. Racketball is a cool sport. 

We now have a regular Wednesday night session at Marple Squash Club funded by Sport England. The women can choose to join the regular Club night following the class. We ran a fantastic campaign in Women’s Squash Week in Sept to recruit new members to our group and to listen to why women want to connect and play. Overwhelmingly, this was about self care, mental health and connection. When you show up for yourself it feels great. Laugh and Smash makes you feel even better!

Here’s some pics too! If you take a look at my FB page and Insta you’ll find loads more

FB @Hannahhodgson
Insta @Hannah_Hodgson
''

Awesome work Hannah and co! We would love to hear about more sessions and clubs doing fantstic things like this, please email in to [email protected] to highlight what goes on down your neck of the woods!

On the 5th & 6th October 2024 we had the largest British Racketball Open Championships to date at Hallamshire Squash & Tennis Club in Sheffield. The Maze Property Solutions sponsored event had over 160 entrants across 20 different categories, from Men's & Ladies Open, througgh to O75s and also varying Doubles draws. There were two full days of action across the club's 8 courts, with matches starting at 8am on both, and running through to late.

It was fantastic to have a mixture of Series regulars mixing in with lots of new faces, including Petteri Repo and Tero Manner who came all the way over from Finland to take part! The club also put on a great Saturday night Oktoberfest themed party with a live band and food & drinks deals which really made a fun evening for all involved. Now on to the action...

Event Champions:

Men's A - Mike Harris
Ladies A - Amber Marshall
Men's B - Elliot Smith
Ladies B - Francesca Whyte
Men's C - Joe Walton

O35s - Ali Mutch
O40s - Alexis Smith
O45s - Mat Lowery
O50s - James Powely
Ladies O50s - Tina Wotherspoon
O55s - Mark Francis
O60s - John Cordeaux
Ladies O60s - Liz Arnell
O65s - Mike Phillips
O70s - Ian Graham
O75s - Larry Grover

Open Doubles - Ted Jeal / Billy Jones
Mixed Doubles - Kim Hay / Jack Bishop
O50s Doubles - Dan Fernandez / David Evans
O60 Doubles - Patrick Osborn / John Cordeaux

There were some brilliant matches at all stages of the event with some very hotly contested draws. We could write a dissertation covering them all so instead we will pick some of our top draw battles to highlight...

​- Men's O60s Final: Cordeaux vs Osborn, Doubles partners thrashing it out once more! This one went to and fro, 1/1, 2/2 and then John eventually taking the 5th 11/9 in just under an hour's high brilliant play. Marker Paul Clarke remarked on how cleanly the match was played and in the quality and creativity of the hitting. Osborn does not go down without a fight so this was a brilliant effort from Cordeaux! (Luckily they had already played their 60s Doubles Final!)

- Ladies A Grade Semi: Hay vs Symmons. Having already had a tough 1st round vs Jasmin Kalar, Rebecca Symmons then came up against Nationals finalist Kim Hay in the Semis. It was a really well contested battle, with both players using all corners of the court to good effect, alongside some top retrievals. In the end Hay came through 3/1 winner to reach her second Major final of the year but it was a great example of high quality Ladies Racketball. Both players looking in a good position to achieve England selection in 2025 if they keep this standard up!

- Men's O45s Semis: Gregory vs Lowery AND Loska vs Giles. Two match ups of contrasting styles! The flair and creativity of Gregory & Giles up against the quality movement and consistency of Lowery & Loska. Two matches that swayed back and forth with the games following the same patterns. Lowery and Loska both going 2/1 up but then losing the 4th to take the matches to a 5th and final game. Giles saving match balls in his match to force the issue. Both courts had packed out crowds for the duration and they were treated to two real exhibitions of high class Racketball action. In the end it was the two top seeds Loska and Lowery who prevailed, Loska by a whisker at 12/10 in the 5th game. Fantastic to watch!

- Ladies O60s Final: Sturgess vs Arnell. This was the first time the two had met with Arnell only recently starting on the UK Racketball scene. Sturgess long having been the bane of any challenger in the O60s category went in as favourite, but who knew what the Cornish player had to offer! As it turned out the Helston based left handed player provided a big upset, taking down the top seed 3/1 in a very close game, the 4th going to 17/15 in her favour. A great win in her first UK Racketball Major!

There were so many other great games across the two days, some exceptionally entertaining Doubles duels included. The full results can be found on the event's Sporty HQ page here:

https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/British-Racketball-Open-5th6th-October-Hallamshire

And pictures and video clips of all the action can be found here at our UK RACKETBALL FACEBOOK PAGE

A huge thank you to everyone who took part in the event and made it such a great weekend of Racketball. It isn't just about the match play, there was a super community feel to the event with lots of new friends made across all ages. 

Thanks to Hallamshire and their staff for being so accomodating and hosting us so amazingly. It is a fantastic venue for us to have a big event in and we are always made feel really welcome. Also thank you to our really generous event sponsors, who's support made it possible to give such a great offering to the players:

Maze Property Solutions - Lead Sponsor
Fastview 360 - Associate Sponsor
Karakal UK - Prize Sponsor
Abbeydale Brewery - Prize Sponsor
Bond Adams Solicitors - Water Bottle Sponsor

As always we look to go bigger and better next year so stay tuned and keep an eye out on the 2025 calendar!