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!

We have been getting busy and organised for you all and can now confirm our Series dates for 2025!

It is a bumper calendar, reflecting the fact that we have been selling events out left right and center, and so we want to be able to provide more opportunities for people to take part.

Also it is really exciting to be able to spread these THREE new Satellite level events to different parts of the UK that we have not necessarily hosted Series comps before. Thank you to our new partner clubs for being keen to come on board! (And indeed the likes of Emily Ison and Nicky Horn for being able to step up support by running them!) There will also be a UK Racketball joint run Racketball Team event in October 2025 in Bournemouth, final date TBC but more info will come out very soon, watch this space!

We are still in the process of building the 2025 events on our website and on Sporty HQ but info on the ranking points set up for the Satellite events can be found on our website here:

https://www.uk-racketball.com/2025-karakal-uk-racketball...

The rest will be wrapped up by end of October! So in the meantime get the dates in your diaries for 2025 and we look forward to seeing you all on court then.

NOTE: The final Road to England Selection event for the 2025 Home Internationals in Cardiff will be the 5th July Welsh Open Series event in Cardiff (convenient right?!) Food for thought for those of you pushing for Open / Ladies / Over 40 / 50 / 60 or 70s England team selection next year!
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Keep the big ball rolling and spreading the good Racketball word everyone! If anyone would either like to nail down Gold Membership for the 2025 Series, or support UK Racketball's mission to continue growing the game as a Sponsor, please contact Mike Harris at [email protected] for more info!

It was a really successful South West Open event at Devon and Exeter Squash & Racketball Club on the 7th September for the Kalar family, with Jasmin, Danni and Dylan all coming away with medals at the end of the day!

​It was a very soggy Saturday down in the Westcountry, a complete contrast to the 30 degree heat of 2023! This didn't deter our UK Racketball Series players though, and with an massive Series event entry of 71 players (not including Doubles pairings,) we were in for a very busy day of action. We had a great mix of travelling regulars and local new or less regular faces and it was lovely to see everyone mixing so socially across the day. The D&E has always been a very welcoming venue and this added to the great atmosphere.

Our Winners for the day were:

O70s - Rob Lathbury - beating O70s Series top dog Graham Greensall in the key group match. A very competitive group of 5 players here though showing the increasing strength of the age group!

O60s - Jon Rycroft - D&E local man Jonny battled through some brilliant matches across the day, notably in his final against Mike Wardle, taking it 12/10 3rd game, 2/1 overall. Both players leaving everything on court! 

O50s - Phil Hall - The Surrey man has been going from strength to strength this season and played some top quality Racketball across the event. He got through his 4 group games without dropping a set, then took down Shropshire's Nick Billington in the final 2/0 as well! 

O40s - Alexis Smith - The O40s category has really been impressive this season, with the top 8 or so players all really driving each other foward, getting wins against each other and always looking for an extra % to get the result. This time round Alexis Smith came through as Champion, beating Craig Chappell in a very hard fought, high quality final 2/1. Smith earlier coming through his group stage without dropping a game, Chappell earning a good win vs Ryan Loska in a brutally long 2/1.

Ladies B Grade - Annabel Wright - We were really pleased to be able to have a separate Ladies B Grade for the first time ever in a One Day Series event! This featured a mix of local club players and also some travelling Ladies, really great to see new faces competing together in a fun and social environment. In the end it was another D&E local - Annabel Wright who managed to win the group, impressing everyone with her ball control and movement for an U15 junior!

B Grade - Natalie Lawrence - Locals reigning supreme! Former British National Ladies O40s Champion Natalie (also from the D&E) was in fine form in a competitive and balanced Mixed B Grade. She made it through her group stage and the Semis without dropping a game, only to come up against James Dean from Bournemouth in a brutal final. Lawrence putting in a fantastic comeback in the 3rd game overturning a heavy deficit and multiple match balls to win 17/15 and 2/1!
  
Ladies A Grade - Jasmin Kalar - A busy Ladies A draw of 8 players in two boxes of 4 had a great mixture again of local players mixing in with others from all over England. Despite the locals best efforts however it was a sister act in the final, with Jasmin meeting younger sister Danni. Both having done well to win through without dropping a set, Jasmin notably beating British Nationals O50s Champion Jo Perriam on the way. In the final she also didn't give Danni a chance to get a foothold in the game, hitting some great quality controlled lines and widths throughout to win 2/0 and take her first Series title! 
 
A Grade - Dylan Kalar - A smaller A Grade this time round with a box of 4 players didn't reflect the quality on display. There were some top games across the day, Kershaw vs Russell (1/2), and Kalar vs Calli Smith (2/1) notable schedule ruiners! In the end Dylan did the business and took the title after some classy play and quality movement across his matches. Kudos to O50s Jason Russell for managing to squeeze the runner up spot over two players much younger than him!
 
Doubles - Norton / Kershaw - The two pairs that made it through to this event's final did so with clinical precision (or as much of that as there can be with Racketball Doubles!) Neither dropped a game in their group stages and so we were left with Norton / Kershaw vs Hall  / Loska to see who could take the win. Loska & Norton are scrapping it out at the top of the UK Racketball Doubles Series rankings at the moment and so every event really does have a big impact on that end game finish! In the end, after having played out a very entertaining and impressively tactical and creative final, it was the North/South buddies that took the win 2/1, giving Norton a big boost as he moves 230 points ahead of Loska in the standings. 

A great day out at the D&E despite a couple of niggly problems with the crazy humidity caused by the relentless rain all day. A huge thank you to the club and its staff for making us feel so welcome and helping sort the court issues when they cropped up. Look forward to being back there in full force again next year!

You can find the full results from the day on Sporty HQ here: https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-8-South-West-Open-Exeter-7th-September

And also photos and video clips from the action here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1445970786350471&type=3

​The next one is our second major of the 2024 Karakal UK Racketball Series - the Maze Property British Racketball Open at Hallamshire in Sheffield! With it being a major for both Singles AND Doubles expect there to be some mighty shifts in the current Series ranking standings post event. Can't wait!

We have a massive month of Racketball action ahead of us, three different events all with important parts to play in the game, the 2024 Series and also 2025 England selection!

- South West Open Exeter 7th September - draws and schedules are now out for this one and with another full event it looks like it will be a great day of action at Devon and Exeter SRC You can see who is in the mix here

https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-8-South-West-Open-Exeter-7th-September

- Home Internationals Racketball Team Championships Glasgow 21st/22nd September - with England, Scotland, Wales and Jersey all coming together to do battle at Over 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s age categories we have a really exciting development for the game as we look to try and push the sport forward.

With other European nations such as Finland, Portugal and Gibraltar also looking keen for Cardiff 2025, this could be a real boost for the sport in the wider context! Good luck to all involved this year (especially the England teams of course) keep an eye out for results and pics as we go!


- The Maze Property Development British Racketball Open 5th & 6th October Hallamshire - with entries already at the same number as the 2023 edition, this event is getting bigger and better every year!

Categories open to suit all ages from Open A/B/C Grades through to O75s, Men's and Ladies, plus Doubles draws too, there really is something for everyone here.

Plus Hallamshire Tennis & Squash Club have done a great job in setting up a top Saturday night Oktoberfest themed party with plenty of entertainment and food & drinks deals. So after a hard day's battling it out you can rehydrate in the appropriate manner...

Event entry via Sporty HQ here:

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

(Entry closes on the 20th September so not long now to get your name down!)


A massive thank you to all our sponsors for making these events and the Series possible. You have all helped us keep driving our great sport forward and create these new opportunities to grow and develop it!

Exciting times indeed...
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