UK Racketball

MARCH 2026 ROAD TO SELECTION UPDATE - IT'S HOTTING UP!

24/3/2026

Things are getting tight in the England Racketball Road To 2026 Selection process!

With all the remaining events in the qualifying period now fully subscribed, and all the major players in action, it is make or break time for those wishing to achieve England Team representation at the London 2026 Internationals.

You can find the full list of who sits where in the line ups attached on the PDF below, a quick reminder of the team set ups here:

Men's Open - 4 players per team - Holders England
Ladies Open - 3 players per team - Holders England
O40 - 4 players per team - Holders England
O50 - 4 players per team - Holders England
O60 - 4 players per team - Holders England
O70 - 3 players per team - Holders England

There is a chance in a couple of the categories that we may field ''B Teams'' so there is very much all to play for even if you are slightly off the top 3/4 slots!

Remaining events in the selection calendar:

16th May - Cambridge Open Peterborough
20th June - Welsh Open, Cardiff
4th July - East Glos Open, Cheltenham

All Series level events giving the below points allocation:

WINNER - 265.00
RUNNER UP - 175.00
3/4 - 105.00
5/8 - 65.00
9 -> 40.00

You MUST have played 4 events minimum to qualify for selection, with your BEST 5 event scores being taken as your final RTS total score.

Good luck everyone, with Wales, Scotland, Guernsey and Jersey all confirmed in for the Internationals it should be a super event and well worth battling it out to be a part of it!

Let's see how it plays out...

england_racketball_road_to_selection_2026.pdf
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UK RACKETBALL 2026 SERIES RANKING UPDATE

17/3/2026

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We are now three months in to the 2026 Karakal UK Racketball Series, and having seen 5 fantastic events take place let's take a look at the up to date Series standings for the first time...

So far we have had the Scottish Open & Trojans Satellite (Jan), the Silverhook Broxbourne Open & Rhiwbina Satellite (Feb), and then the Hallamshire Open in March, so three possible event weekends to take part in. Quite a few of our players have maximised their diaries and been able to play in all three, so let's see if that has benefitted them in our first run through...

SERIES SINGLES - Current Holder - Ryan Loska:

The Series trophy looks like it might be staying in the family for now, as Paul Loska has started his O70s 2026 run with a bang, with two wins and a runner up spot out of his three events. However Stourbridge's Andy Speake has also had an excellent start to his year and sits on equal points from his O50s events. 615 apiece!

The chasing pack sees Hallamshire's O60s legend Jim Muirhead sat on 545, just shading it ahead of England Ladies Captain Jasmin Kalar, and O50s Leicestershire regular Steve Smith, both on 530 points. All are involved in the next couple of competitions so it's all to play for!

Just off the pace but not by much are Paul Knocker Norton (505) and then duo Nick Jenkins & John Cordeaux, both on 440. Cordeaux missing the next few in the lead up to the Nationals however, so expect the rest of the pack to accelerate away as they are all involved!

https://www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1727

SERIES DOUBLES - Current Holder - Paul Norton:

The destructive Yorkshire doubles specialist Norton sits pretty at the top of the current standings on a monstrous 630 points. Chasing behind are Andy Speake (290), Dan Hindmarch and Steve Smith (280) but with a lot of work to do!

With a curious turnaround in Doubles entries in the Series so far - B Grade Doubles outstripping A Grade entries, it will be interesting to see how this plays out across the year, particularly when we come to the European Cup and Series Finals Major ranking events for the category. Can anyone chase the Yorkshire lad down to prevent an unprecedented THIRD consecutive title?!

https://www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1995

No Series events in April due to the Masters Intercounty Team Champs so time to rest those legs and prepare for the run in toward the 2026 British National Championships - our first Major event of the season! If you haven't got your entry in yet then don't miss out on the biggest and best Racketball event of the year:

https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/The-British-National-Racketball-Championships-2026

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KEY 2027 ROAD TO SELECTION & MAJOR EVENT UPDATE

4/3/2026

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2026 has been a standout year for both UK Racketball and the game in the wider context. With European Squash and World Squash getting more heavily involved in the game and the inaugral officially sanctioned European Cup taking place in October this year, we are at a great position in the sport.

Because of this new major event coming in alongside the already very well established British Racketball Open, British Nationals, and also the International Teams Championships, we have an increasingly busy calendar at the top end of the game. To avoid too much congestion therefore going forwards (2027 Series onwards) this will be the new structure for the Major ranking events:

British Racketball Open - moving to March as of 2027, with the first new date being the 12th - 14th March. Still at the fantastic Hallamshire Club who have been great partners with UK Racketball for a number of years. The Hallamshire Series level event will then swap to October 2027 (essentially a like for like date replacement.)

British Racketball Nationals - staying in July and at Edgbaston Priory as our primary venue. Exact date to be confirmed for 2027 soon, but we are really pleased to again have such an awesome venue as our lead club.

International Racketball Teams Championships - staying in September for 2027 onwards. After discussion with our RASTA Scottish Series friends, we agree that keeping continuity with this date is useful for both of our Road To Selection (RTS) set ups. The response to the creation of this event and everything it has brought to both our Series, plus then the increased pick up of the game in Wales, Jersey and Guernsey has been amazing and we see this as a key flagship event as we move forwards.

European Cup - as you are aware we are the inaugral hosts of the European Cup (2nd - 4th October at Hallamshire!). This will not necessarily be the case going forward however, with the aim being that it then gets picked up and shared around our other European nations as the game progresses. (Our Finnish friends have already shown a big interest in taking it on next.) Therefore while this is absolutely a key tournament to keep tabs on, it will not form a direct part of the UK Racketball set up, therefore meaning it’s date could vary year on year. We will be working with the organisers of each year to promote it out as best we can so just make sure you keep an ear to the ground!

So this now gives the 2027 (and onwards) UK Racketball Series a much better split of Major events, with it now moving to March - July - September, instead of the current July - September - October set up. We hope this will allow people more opportunity to compete at these high level events.

ROAD TO SELECTION 2027 IMPLICATIONS:

This change does create a one off issue with regards to the 2027 Road to Selection set up. Namely that we would then have THREE Major ranking events in the July 2026 - July 2027 ranking period. This would create an imbalance in the standings with too many heavily weighted events potentially favouring some players. So this will be the compromise for the next RTS run:

The British Nationals (July 2026), European Cup (October 2026) and British Open (March 2027) can all still count toward your Road to Selection 2027 placing as Major events.
However, only your best finishing position from either the European Cup OR the British Open will count toward your final placing.
The British National Championships stands alone from this and will still count as one of your major ranking events.
So in theory, if you won your category in the European Cup (receiving 650 points toward RTS,) but then finished runner up in the British Open (430 points,) your 650 points finish would count and your 430 points would not.
We believe that this provides a fair balance to this standalone RTS period without diminishing the importance of either the European Cup or British Open events.

We appreciate that this is a bit fiddly and not ideal, but it is a bit of short term pain for a long term gain and better balance to the Series calendar going forwards. Road To Selection rules will otherwise stay as they currently are set out.

If you have any questions regarding the above changes please feel free to drop Mike an email at [email protected] Otherwise we really hope to see you again at another Series event very soon!

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Series Weekend Two - Broxbourne & Rhiwbina Review!

13/2/2026

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Saturday 7th February gave us our second 2026 UK Racketball Series Double Header weekend, with an East / West split this time. The Silverhook sponsored Broxbourne Open in the East, and the new Rhiwbina Satellite event in Cardiff in the West.

We had an excellent entry for both events, again around 120 players competing between the two venues, Rhiwbina in particular seeing a lot of new Welsh faces involved which was really positive. The Welsh game is growing fast!

You can find the results from both events below, alongside the updated Series Singles & Doubles rankings:

SILVERHOOK BROXBOURNE OPEN: https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-2A-2026-Broxbourne-Open-Saturday-7th-February

RHIWBINA SATELLITE: https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-2B-2025-UK-Racketball-Rhiwbina-Open-Satellite-2025

2026 SERIES SINGLES RANKINGS: https://www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1727

2026 SERIES DOUBLES RANKINGS: https://www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1995

It was a day of quality performances across the board, but here are some of the notable standout efforts:

- The B Grade Doubles destroyers Stu Tyler & John Waller claimed another title without dropping a game in the Broxbourne event, continuing their 2025 dominance. The calls for promotion to A Grade are increasing in intensity...

- Regular adversaries Pat Osborn & John Cordeaux were back at it again in the Broxbourne O60s, meeting in the final once more. Cordeaux doing well to battle through some tough early battles against the likes of Fernandez & Muirhead, coming through both 2/1. In the end Osborn got the better of the final, taking it 2/0. Who knows what next round will bring!

- Some of the other category top dogs came through their draws unscathed in Broxbourne too, Ted Jeal and Steve Smith without dropping a game in the Open & O50s, Ian Graham being pushed hard by the always hard working and difficult to break down John Herbetko. Great to see these guys back in action in 2026!

- Across the boarder in Wales we had a great Ladies draw, featuring a number of UK Racketball first timers! Karen Bealey from Devon doing her England selection chances a lot of good by taking her first title of 2026!

- There was some home success for the Welsh players, with doubles duo Rowlands & Kilshaw taking their first ever Doubles title, and Frankie Pill the C Grade title in his first UK Racketball event! Runner up spots also going to Ian Fenner Evans in the O60s and James Turnbull on the O50s draws.

A huge thank you to our Broxbourne event sponsor Silverhook for their second year of support. They sorted us out with some great prizes and really added to the player experience! All in all, an awesome day of matches with a top bunch of players! Including some birthday funtimes for one of our faves, Paul Knocker Norton!

Can't wait for the next one at Hallamshire in March!

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Series Super Saturday Number 2 Is Here!

3/2/2026

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Yes that's right, it is our second UK Racketball 2026 Series weekend of the year and another big Double Header is coming our way!

We have two fantastic entry lists lined up for our East / West event split, starting with the ever popular Silverhook sponsored Broxbourne Open in Hertfordshire!

https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-2A-2026-Broxbourne-Open-Saturday-7th-February

This is one of our longest running Series events and always brings us some brilliant battles and worthy winners across the day's action. All draws are really well subscribed again (another sellout event,) with the O50s and O60s in particular giving us some seriously heavy hitters thrashing it out against each other over the day. Keep an eye out on the updates on the link above as the draws fill out across the day, important England Selection ranking points to be stolen on this one!

A massive thank you to club member Peter Iszatt and his company Silverhook for sponsoring the event for the second year. It makes a big difference in what we can do with these tournaments for the players so your support is hugely appreciated! Go well in the C Grade mate!

We then head over the Severn Bridge for the second and newest Welsh Series event in the calendar - the Rhiwbina Open Satellite in Cardiff!

www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-2B-2025-UK-Racketball-Rhiwbina-Open-Satellite-2025

This comes off the back of a really positive year for the Welsh game last year, with a sell out Welsh Open in July, and an incredibly well recieved and attended International Teams event in September, both at Cardiff Squash Club. Given the rise in interest in the game over the river we knew it was the right call to have a second Series event there this year! Hosted by the lovely Rhiwbina club, who's committee and players are always keen to drive new initiatives forward, we think this could be a great regular venue for us going forwards.

It is great to see so many Welsh players involved in the draws and we hope that this helps continue the positive move forward that the game is having there. Particularly in the Ladies and A Grade draws where local players outnumber the travelling English!

Good luck to everyone involved in both events, it should be a great day of action, and thank you to both venues for hosting us.

Keep an eye out for results and updates from across the day's play on our UK Racketball Facebook page!

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UK-Racketball

MARCH 2026 ROAD TO SELECTION UPDATE - IT'S HOTTING UP!

UK RACKETBALL 2026 SERIES RANKING UPDATE

KEY 2027 ROAD TO SELECTION & MAJOR EVENT UPDATE

Series Weekend Two - Broxbourne & Rhiwbina Review!

Series Super Saturday Number 2 Is Here!

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