After what seems like an eternity since our last event (the Silverhook sponsored East of England Open at Broxbourne in the start of February,) we are back with our third event of the 2025 Karakal UK Racketball Series! The North East Open at Hallamshire Squash & Tennis club in Sheffield.

The long time UK Racketball venue has some of the best courts in the country and a great showcourt set up for all it's glassbacks, so it is a real pleasure to be back there again. Now to the action...

- A bumper 9 A Grade draw sees young Dylan Kalar in as favourite as he seeks to push on England selection later this year. But he will have a real depth of quality players to get past to get his second Series title with a host of evenly matches opponents along the way.

- Dylan's sister Jasmin is the top seed in the Ladies event, nearly qualified for England herself, just one event win away from being all but in the side! It's great to see a number of new faces in the rest of the Ladies draw as that side of the game continues to grow.

- The B Grade has the unusual line up of all players involved having not won a B Grade Series comp before. Meaning it is up for grabs for a first time winner! Some hungry eyes on the prize this time then... 

- The O40s and O50s events both have seriously punchy line ups, with several players needing some good finishing positions coupled with some head to head wins to boost their England selection chances! These two draws will definitely provide some entertaining battles across the day and whoever comes out top will certainly have earned their post event rehydration at the club bar.

- The O60s and O70s draws have two very big line ups with 16 & 12 players respectively. The 70's in particular is very strong. with the likes of Ian Graham returning to Series action, current Series top dog Paul Loska in the mix, alongside top players like Rob Lathbury, John Herbetko and last year England player Geoff Wright. The O60s has lots of players in the running for the top spots, with the local legend and recently ''aged up'' Jim Muirhead looking to kickstart his new age group with a bang against the other top players like Mike  Wardle, Mark Banfield and Robin Chipperfield!

- We are doubling up on the Doubles draws, with an A and B Grade event once again! Ryan Loska is looking to continue his great start to the Doubles Series rankings, partnering up with 2024 National Doubles Champ Adam Giles for this event. They will have strong competition though, with 2024 Nationals Finalists Norton/Chappell out for blood, and the family duo of Smith/Smith also proving to be strong competitors in the 2025 Series already.
The B Grade sees two previous B Grade Doubles winners going head to head, with John Waller sans his partner Stu Tyler and therefore roping in mighty Tommy Meadows in search of title No 2. They will come up against another local duo in Graeme Manson and Nick Robinson, Manson looking to follow up his Scottish Open B Grade win in January!

Should be a top day of matches across the board and we can't wait to see who manages to come out on top! Big thanks to Hallamshire for hosting us once again, always a great venue to have a super Series day of action. Full draws and schedule can be found below, keep an eye out throughout Saturday for result updates:

www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-3-2025-North-East-of-England-Racketball-Open-22rd-March-Hallamshire

As things in the UK Racketball Series progress at pace it is important to make sure that we keep tabs on any changing rules and regulations in the game.

The World Squash Federation (WSF) have recently released an updated Rules and regulations for Racketball / Squash57 and so it is well worth making sure you check them out as UK Racketball will be keeping up with the changes for all Series and National events.

https://www.worldsquash.org/squash-57/squash-57-rules/

One key rule is the detail regarding Racketball racket length and dimensions. Notably:

​''The SQUASH57 racket has the same length specification as both the American Racquetball racquet and the Australian Racquetball racquet. The details are contained in the SQUASH57 Rules, a link to which can be found above.
Any racket longer than 22” (558.8mm) will not meet the specification requirements for American Racquetball, Australian Racquetball or SQUASH57. Any racket weighing more than 280g will not meet the specification requirements for SQUASH57.''

UK Racketball will therefore be enforcing this ruling regarding the correct racket from the 1st January 2026 (start of the next UK Racketball Series) for all its events. Players that have rackets that do not fit within the required specifications will not be able to use those rackets at UK Racketball events.

The list of currently non confirming rackets can be found here:

https://www.usaracquetball.com/play/rules/non-conforming-racquets

Any questions at all regarding the rules in any form please don't hesitate to get in touch - [email protected]