We officially started the 2026 Karakal UK Racktball Series on Saturday 24th January with a big North & South Doubleheader weekend!

Running simultaneously we had the Scottish Racketball Open at Newlands LTSC in Glasgow, alongside the Trojans Southampton Satellite event. Over 120 players competing across the various categories at both events which was fantastic to see.

You can find the full results from both events here:

Scottish Open Glasgow - www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-1A-2024-Scottish-UK-Racketball-Open-Newlands-Sat-24th-January

Trojans Satellite Southampton - www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-1B-2026-UK-Racketball-Trojans-Open-Satellite-2026

Photos and some video clips from the Southampton event can be found here - ​www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1845024863111726&type=3

A few notable results from the events...

SCOTTISH OPEN:

- 2025 Ladies England Captain Jasmin Kalar takes a remarkable Men's B Grade and Ladies Open Double Gold after 6 matches in one day!

- Paul Knocker Norton (2025 Series Doubles Champion) resumed business as usual in the category, taking the A Grade Doubles with his partner Matt Bedwell once again. Adding it to the O40s title on the day too!

- Ryan Loska swapped the O40s category for the Men's A Grade, and manages to battle through to the final! Managing to take down some of our top Series A Grade regulars along the way. Scottish National Champion and Number 1 Matt Bedwell proving too hot to handle in the Final.

- The O70s box draw of 5 players provided us with some brilliant battles across the day. In the end it came down to Paul Loska vs the recently aged up Graham Holmes, both Series regulars at the top end of their age groups. Loska taking a tight 2/1 win to secure his first Series title of 2026!

TROJANS SATELLITE:

- A really well subscribed Ladies draw giving us some great matches across the day. Local Dorset player Sam Burnand doing well to come through a tough group and then take down Devon's Karen Bealey in a well fought final.

- Local Scot (who should really have been playing in Glasgow!) Martin Buchan managed to get through a really competitive and balanced B Grade draw to secure his first UK Racketball Series win. Going so far as to take the B Grade Doubles title with his partner Tom Sanderson too! Another Double Golder for our first outing of the year!

- The final match of the day - the O70s Final between John Herbetko and Paul Hudson Oldnall gave us an absolute treat to watch, with it going the full distance, 3/2 and 11/8 in the 5th to the wily Herbetko. Fantastic quality of Racketball from both guys, also lovely chaps to have on the scene!


Overall it was really positive as well to see that the new addition of the C Grade draw for the Open category was well recieved, with loads of new faces getting involved in both events. Hopefully this continutes to encourage more players to give the events a go and get in the mix with our great community!

Thanks to everyone who played and of course our host clubs for being so welcoming and giving us two great venues to play at. 

It's the Silverhook sponsored Broxbourne Open and the brand new Rhiwbina Satellite up next on the 7th February. Another double header weekend! The Broxbourne event is sold out already, but there is still space and time to get your name down for the Rhiwbina Cardiff Satellite event if still keen! You can enter via the below link:

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

Hope to see loads of you there! 

A huge huge sponsor thank you...

With our 2026 series kicking off imminently (next Saturday!) we do have one very important thing to say.

A huge thank you to all of our UK Racketball 2026 Series sponsors for their continued support in helping make what we do possible. These sponsors are either players who are regulars on the UK Racketball circuit, or close relations too, and it is so great from our perspective to have them invested in the game so much. That community involvement and support is a big part of what makes the UK Racketball Series so great and we are very luck to have you all on board.

So thank you once again, and we will do our best to chuck you the occasional decent draw or leisurely start time once in a while...

If anyone is interested in helping support either the UK Racketball series or any of our events as a sponsor please feel free to get in touch at [email protected] for more info.
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In the meantime, get those brand new shoes worn in, those rackets restrung and grips regripped (with Karakal's finest obviously) and we can;t wait to see you back in Series action soon!

Happy New Year all!

With the first events of the 2026 Karakal UK Racketball Series getting rolling in a couple of weeks time (24th January at Trojans Southampton & Newlands Glasgow) we have a couple of key reminders for you all. These will be put in place from the first events of the Series onwards, and will encompass every single UK Racketball run event. This includes all Series events, Nationals, British Open, Intercounty teams and any other competition that UK Racketball is in charge of / taking the lead on.

Please see below:

RACKET SPECIFICATIONS:

- We already work in line with the World Squash Federation (WSF)'s policy on approved balls for events (Karakal our lead sponsors are one of two in this category), but we will now also be following the guidelines as to approved racket specifications too.

These can be found on the WSF website here: www.worldsquash.sport/squash57-ball-racket-specifications/

The list of rackets that are affected are attached by PDF at the bottom of this article.

There are several rackets in common circulation / use that DO NOT hit the correct measurements (they measure too long, which is deemed by the WSF to give an unfair advantage) so please make sure to check your own equipment just in case. While we appreciate that this could be quite annoying in having to purchase a new racket, with the progress that the game is making on a European and Worldwide scale we need to do as much as we can to have a clear set of guidelines across the board for the sport.

As far as UK Racketball events are concerned, if you have a ''non conforming'' racket at an event, you will be notified on the day. You will be able to use that racket on that particular event but then will need to replace it with a correct specification racket for any future UK Racketball tournaments.


OVER 40's DRAWS:

Due to the rise in popularity of the ''Graded'' categories in our events (A and B Grade, and now the C Grade), we have seen a drop off in entries in the O40s category in our one day Series and Satellite events over the last 12/18 months or so. Many O40 aged players competing in the Grades draws rather than the age category. Which is no problem from our point of view, we want people to be competing in the draw they are happiest in!

This does mean that we have to have a think about the O40s category going forward. So this is the plan:

- It will still remain a category in all events, the Nationals and Open still also having O40s and O45s draws as well.

- If there is an entry of less than 4 players in an event, those already entered will be contacted and moved into either the A/B/C Grade of that tournament. In some cases (schedule depending) it may be possible to still have those players compete against each other as a means to decide an O40s winner, but they will do this alongside their graded event matches. (More games for everyone then!)

- With the Road to England selection still being applicable to the O40 age group, ranking points toward that will be decided based on your finishing positions in your Grades in relation to the other O40 entrant players.

PLEASE NOTE: you will only be included in the Road to Selection standings if you enter the O40s category initially and then get moved across. If you enter the A/B/C Grade draw primarily, your finish position will NOT be factored in.


SQUASH57 / RACKETBALL LEVELS:

The new Squash57 Levels system is really taking off across the UK and it is really great to see more and more county leagues, graded events and team game matches being included in it. We believe that it will be an incredibly useful tool to helping grow participation and interest in the game so please do get involved in it if you haven't done so already:

https://app.squash57levels.com/dashboard

It does obviously provide us with some very good input into results and playing levels for the people entering our events. So as we move forward into 2026 we will be using it more and more to help grade our events, to make sure everyone is in the correct category and make everything as balanced as possible. 

Obviously as it is still growing, not all Levels will be 100% accurate quite yet so we won't be diving in to fully using it entirely for a few months, but it will certainly be used more and more as the 2026 Series progresses and onwards.


So a few bits to bear in mind moving forwards! if you have any questions at all please feel free to email Mike at [email protected] to chat!

Thanks all and look forward to seeing you on court very soon.