On a soggy Summer Saturday, we took a trip across the Severn Bridge to Cardiff Squash Club for the first ever UK Racketball Welsh Open Championship! 

We were made feel very welcome by both the club management and also the local Welsh players, lots of whom were competing in their first ever UK Racketball Series event. It was great to see them doing battle against our regulars. It certainly seems that a lot of positivity has come from the event, hopefully doing a lot to drive the game forward in the region!

Despite a few late dropouts we had a really good mix of strong drawers across all the age group, and there was a mixture of upset winds and business as usual throughout...


On the upset front, John Herbetko put in a fantastic shift in the over 70s, overcoming a bout of cramp against Andy Mitchell in his tight semi final win, to then take down Mr. Consistent Paul Loska in the final 2/0. A brilliant effort from the Dorset man, who has also managed to secure his England spot in this age group this year!

Another notable win was in the over 40s category, where two of the usual gladiators clashed once again. Alexis Smith this time managing to overcome Ryan Loska with a very long and hard fought 2/1 final win. Smith did well to take down Adam Giles in his group stage 2/0, Loska also overcoming a spirited battle by Paul Norton, winning 2/1.


There was also nearly an upset in the Doubles final, with the current Doubles Series leader Norton partnering up with other top Doubles player Adam Giles to scrape through in a very long and hard 2/1 win. This came against another Mr. Consistent in the category Steve Smith, and his Leicestershire team mate Craig Lloyd. Check out the video for this match when we upload it on our YouTube channel soon, there were some phenomenal rallies and really entertaining exchanges.


In the other draws, an over 60s which was decimated by late dropouts still provided a very strong draw and a finals group of three, with John Cordeaux, Jim Muirhead and Mike Wardle all having a great three-way showdown against each other. Cordeaux coming through as overall winner, showing a good run of form before the British Nationals in two weeks, in which he is number two seed. Steve Smith once again romped through the over 50s category, facing a long time battle partner Chris Wase in the final. Wase himself doing very well to battle through a tough draw with tight games against David Evans and Phil Hall along the way. 


Rebecca Symmons took the Ladies title with two very convincing wins, (congratulations though to Michelle Meadows for achieving her first ever Ladies runner-up spot and her first series medal!) Becky also had a great run in the Open B Grade draw, narrowly losing out to the eventual winner James Dean. He took out a spirited attempt from Tommy Meadow (two silvers for the Meadows clan!!) Both players were fighting for their second B Brade title, with Dean winning it he is certainly looking like pushing himself further into A Grade territory!


Speaking of A Grade, this has to be one of the strongest draws we have had for a while, with some fantastic matches across the day. Luke Bishop on his return to Series action doing very well to come through a very strong group with big wins against Lewis Poole and Ali Mutch. In the end it was a very entertaining final, with Bishop going up against regular hitting partner Mike Harris, both displaying some quality shot selection and creativity, with Harris taking the win 2/0, a tad fortunate that Bishop had the far heavier workload on the day!


So while there were no Welsh medals this time, the locals all acquitted themselves really well and made it a really sociable and entertaining day throughout. We look forward to seeing more of them across our Series event and also hope to increase our Series offering in Wales next year!


A big thanks to the Club for hosting us, we look forward to being back there in September for the International Team event featuring England, Scotland, Wales, Jersey and Guernsey, as the nations do battle across the main age groups for the big title!


All attention now however turns towards Edgbaston Priory in two weeks time for the British National Championships. See you there!
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Patrick Osborn and Paul Norton were the top performers in the 5th Karakal UK Racketball Series event of 2025, the 31st May Cambridge Open in Peterborough! Both coming through with medals from the singles and doubles categories!

The Peterborough Sports Club seems to be going from strength to strength each time we visit, this year no exception with all the courts having been redone and looking incredibly smart with some other really great touch ups around the club too. Making it a real pleasure to be running the event there! In addition to this, Peterborough has a really vibrant and busy Racketball community and it was lovely to see so many local faces in the draws, particularly in the Ladies B grade which had four new players in it, all doing really well in their first UK Racketball series event.

It was a busy day across all the draws, with some great lineups and all categories being well subscribed. Starting off with the doubles this time round, and we were able to split into A and B Grade categories once again which was really nice as it gave some of the more social doubles players a chance to get some balanced matches against others of their own level. In that event, the dynamic Dover duo of Tyler and Waller took their second B Grade doubles win of 2025, proving to be canny operators together! The A Grade was won by Patrick Osborn and his late stand in partner Ted Jeal who filled in for Zoe Fennell. They took down current doubles series leader Paul Norton and his new partner Steve Smith, who himeslf had stepped in for Knockers regular team mate Craig Chappell in his absence.


Yet another strong over 70 draw, and yet another big batch of brutal battles. In the end, the current top dog Ian Graham fought his way through the pack to claim another Series title, but he was pushed well throughout the day, showing that whilst he sits at the top currently, the others really are not far behind and are snapping at his heels.

A full 16 drawer for the over 60s once again was great to see, this is definitely the busiest age category in our Series and we always get a great mix of players across the stages. Darren Withey doing well to take down second seed John Cordeaux in a hard fought semi-final before falling just short against Patrick Osborn in the final. Pat having a great day at the office coming away with both singles and doubles titles! Also looking very good for the over 60s Nationals next month!


The over 50s was missing quite a few of its regulars, but one still remained and he did the damage on the day! Chris Morris returning to series action once again after being part of the successful Shropshire over 50s county team that won the ICC Masters title in May. He took the Over 50s title without dropping a game on the day, Tim Millington his final opponent doing very well to battle past Nick Billington in the group stage to get to the last round. An over 40s again missing a few of the big names at the top was nevertheless really well contested. Steve Smith dropping down an age group doing really well to get past a battling Colin Griggs in his group. This lead to an entertaining final match between Smith and his doubles partner for the day Paul Norton, two very classy players using all corners of the court with great accuracy and creativity. The final result ended up with Norton taking his first over 40s title of 2025, a great day's work with the runner up spot in the doubles too! 


A very competitive B Grade draw was won by Sam Morris, taking out fellow England Squash coach Tommy Meadows in a very tight two nil battle, both games going down to the wire with very little in between. Tommy has been showing some impressive improvement over the last 12 months, and is nudging himself towards being an A Grade regular! Sam also very much on the cusp himself! 

As previously mentioned, it was great to have a well subscribed Ladies B Grade with a number of local players involved, and it was one of these that ended up coming away with the title! Steph Horner defeating Lindsey Ransley to take the win in her first ever UK Racketball Series event! Ccongratulations to both players and we really hope to see them and the rest of the Ladies involved in the Series going forward.


The Ladies A Grade featured four players all battling out for key England positions, with the fifth Sam Mueller playing her second UK Racketball Series event since coming back from a bit of time away from the game. So a really high level of competition! In the end, Becky Symmonds took the title after four hard matches, having a great 2/1 final battle with Jasmin Kalar in the final. Doing her September Cardiff International Teams England selection chances the world of good! Finally, the Open A Grade. This was won in emphatic style by Dylan Kalar, who has now secured his England spot for September by taking the title. He was clinical throughout the day, his retrieval skills and court coverage proving too much for his opponents to breakdown. It’s great to have some newer “younger” (ha) faces like Dylan and his sisters Danni and Jasmin involved in the series, really positive for the growth of the game!


So a really great day over in Peterborough with a lovely bunch of players at a top venue. We will definitely be back there again next year as it is fast proving to be one of our most popular Series events! 


You can find all of the results here:

https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-5-2025-Cambridge-Open-1st-June-Peterborough​

...and photos from the day on our Facebook album here. 

​www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1648178882796326&type=3

Next up is the Open and Ladies Inter Counties in Wolverhampton followed by the first ever Welsh open! Busy times!

We are teaming up up with England Squash to provide a series of coaching workshops on Racketball! 

These are aimed at any Level 1, 2 or 3 qualified coaches who are keen to develop Racketball programs in their local area, get ideas as to how to target different demographics to get new players on court, and also to find out the different nuances between Squash and Racketball.

We are hoping that with sessions like these starting up around the country, we can continue the growth of the game at club and participation level, not just the Series and National level we are already seeing. 

More players on court and in clubs can only be a good thing!

If you are interested in finding out more or getting involved, check out the full details here:

https://www.englandsquash.com/courses/squash-57-coach-workshop/61/533?fbclid=IwY2xjawKlDn5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETB2WHl1N2c4bWJXRVo2M0dzAR7rhXUiNtClGCGbLt-4E6eJZDVQYZMm5gfev6Ok1c31h-ZBt5l3WqfzZFYXlQ_aem_31zQSekmW1jk3SJjxFGr9A

As I'm sure you are all aware we are trying to find lots of different ways to keep pushing Racketball forward in the UK and further afield! So we wanted to have a try at a one day exhibition event showcasing the top players currently involved in the sport. Full details below:

- Date - Saturday 6th December 2025
- Venue - Stourbridge Squash & Tennis Club

- Format:

>A MONRAD style 8 player draw. Numbers 1-4 seeded, 5/8 drawn at random.
>Three matches in the day, all players play through to finishing position. All matches are best of three games to 11 points, sudden death at 10/10.
>Match timings would be well spread across the day, roughly 11am, 3pm, 7pm. They would work around the UK Racketball Series Finals event running at the venue at the same day, so there will be a big crowd and great atmosphere.
> Two matches each round would run on Stourbridge's show court and be live streamed, the other two on one of its (very well maintained) hard back courts. I would try and make sure everyone gets one round on the streamed court! 

- Prize Fund (the important bit ha):

>I have a minimum prize fund of £2,000 for the event and hopefully I will increase that further with more sponsor support. With £2k in mind this will be the initial breakdown across the finishing positions:

W - £700
RUP - £450
3RD - £300
4TH - £175
5TH - £150
6TH - £100
7TH - £75
8TH - £50

This will be a really exciting showcase of Racketball at the very highest level and we can't wait to see it all unfold!

Stay tuned for info on the players involved and more details...