UK Racketballers!

Ever considered representing your country on the Racketball court?

Well we are really pleased to be able to announce that on the 21st & 22nd September this year we will be taking part in and helping run the inaugral Home International Masters Racketball Teams event.

This has come about in collaboration with our friends from the Scottish RASTA (Racketball Around Scotland) set up, Jersey Squash and Racketball (famous for their very popular Jersey Racketball Festival event) and also Squash Wales. This event will feature teams from each organisation competing at Mixed Over 40, Over 50, Over 60 and Over 70 age group categories for the chance to be crowned Home Internationals Racketball Team Champions!

The event will take place at Newlands LTC in Glasgow, home to our Scottish Open Racketball Series event and there will also be a team dinner for all the players on the Saturday night to celebrate such a momentous get together! (The first time this has ever happened on the Racketball front.)

The England kit will be very kindly sponsored by our Series sponsors Karakal, and further sponsorship support for the event comes from another of our Series sponsors, Intelligent OH. Sides will be comprised of 4 players per team, all will play singles, and pending scheduling, there may be a chance for an informal Doubles fixture as well. Players will have to provide their own travel and accomodation, we will help with providing options and ideas for this based on info provided by Newlands.

The England team selection process will be as follows:

- Players have to have competed in THREE OR MORE UK Racketball events from between 1st August 2023 - 6th July 2024 (the Leamington Series event on this date is included in this.) The British Open Racketball Championships counts for this, but Racketball Intercounties does not.

- For those who have done the above, the top four ranked players for each age category based on their 2023 & 2024 Series ranking at the cutoff date on 7th July 2024 will be the first to be invited to represent England. Then, if they are unable to make it, the next player(s) on the list under them will be invited and so on so forth. 

- The Racketball National rankings are still currently a work in progress and unfortunately not quite ready for use for this. Hence the Series ranking use instead.

- The first 4 players selected will be notified by email no later than Wednesday 10th July, alongside the 5th & 6th in line in case of any drop outs. Confirmation of representation should be given by email reply to Mike Harris at [email protected] no later than Tuesday 23rd July to aid the organisation proccess.


Any questions on any of the above, please contact Mike at the above email address. Very exciting times though! We will be working on adding Open and Ladies categories in the coming years so watch this space.


So with all the above in full flow, it is definitely not the time to miss out on any Series events coming up. We have Peterborough & Leamington on the way in June and July and both are starting to look rather busy with less than 20 spots left in each. Get your entry in on Sporty below, plus for the biggest event in the UK Racketball calendar - the British National Racketball Championships at Edgbaston Priory:


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

Leamington: https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-6-West-of-England-Racketball-Open-6th-July-Leamington

British Nationals Edgbaston Priory: https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/The-Karakal-British-National-Racketball-Championships-20th21st-July-Edgbaston


Hope to see you all at a Series event very soon!

Our 4th event of the Karakal UK Racketball 2024 Series took place in sunny Bristol on 20th April. Another sell out event, it was great to see so many of our Series regulars back in action alongside the local talent!

With every category well invested in, we had some really great battles across the day with some upsets and well earned victories along the way. Kicking off with the O70's event, E3 winner Ian Graham was back in action and he had a strong draw of Graham Greensall, John Herbetko and Stephen Uttley to get past. There were some really great matches in each round with some fantastic movement and ball skill on show from the older players. Graham coming through as Champion but pushed all the way in each match. An incredibly strong Over 60s draw featured a number of National Champions and Series event winners duking it out. Box 2 featuring really tight matches between Robin Chipperfield, Gary Preston, John Cordeaux and Mark Banfield. In the end it came to a 3 way tie between Cordeaux, Banfield and Chipperfield to see who got through to face the inevitable Patrick Osborn in the final. Chipperfield scraping through based on games won/lost over the other two! In the end though, Osborn once again proved his class at this category, taking down a valiant effort from Robin 2/0 in the Final.

Another punchy category in the O50s gave us some more great games, notably Paul Dodds battling past Tim Gillingham 2/1 and then only just losing out to Andy Hopwood in the semi 12/10 in the 3rd. Hopwood then lost out to Chris Wase in a tight 2/0 final, Wase back to winning ways for his first Series title of 2024. Ryan Loska continues to impress in the O40s category and this weekend was no exception as he came through the draw without dropping a game. A great match up vs Natalie Lawrence in the first round (a past Ladies O40s National Champion herself) was great to watch. Barry Talbot pushed him hard in the final, the big Shropshireman doing well to get past Adam Giles in a 2/0 semi final win. Loska keeping his early push at the top of the Series rankings with this victory, his third of the 2024 season!

It was great to have another Ladies event running, with 6 players from the Bristol and Devon area. Padel supremo Roxy Keshavarz made it through to the final with two well fought wins, facing Devon's Jo Perriam in the last match of the event. Perriam upsetting the odds with some great straight hitting and ball control, winning a tight 2/0, 12/10 in the second game. Let's keep getting these Ladies entries in! The Mixed B Grade was very well subscribed with a great depth to the 16 player draw. A lot of the pre event top dogs fell by the wayside to new faces or unknown players. Kudos to Mike Wardle for battling it out to the 5/6th place position as an O50s player! In the end, the mercurial Nick Jenkins got through to face newbie Karl Becker in a very entertaining and well fought final. Jenkins taking his first Series title of 2024, 2 games to 1 over the Stourbridge man. 

The ever entertaining Doubles event provided us with the usual mix of quality, chaos and confusion, with some very well balanced match ups across the groups. The big upset coming in the semi finals, as the ''experienced'' pairing of Osborn & Cordeaux overcame the much fancied local duo of Quarterman & Wood in a brilliant 2/1 battle. The O60 Doubles National Champions showing their nous and courtcraft to great effect. They did however come unstuck in the Final against the classy pairing of Norton & Chappell, both of whom have won numerous Doubles Series titles to date. This win takes Norton clear of Ryan Loska in the new Doubles Series rankings, Loska falling at the group stage with his partner Keshavarz. Last year's inaurgal Doubles MVP showing his quality once again! Finally to the A Grade / Open draw. It has been great to see the consistent quality and depth of entry for these events this year and this time was no exception, with the likes of reigning Series Champ Alexis Smith, ex South African PSA Pro Gareth Naidoo, Series event winners Olly Staunton, Jason Russell, Paul Norton and Alex Kershaw all in the mix. 

In the end it was a bit of a suprise final, with Bristol player Chris Wood coming through the bottom half of the draw really well with great wins vs Kershaw & Staunton on the way. Naidoo taking down Alexis Smith in a quality semi final was another upset win, the smooth movement and controlled line hitting not allowing Smith's natural attacking game to come to fruition. In the final Naidoo continued in this vein, not allowing Wood any leeway to be aggressive with his play, taking the win 2/0 and being a worthy Champion. While he can't unfortunately enter the British Nationals, he certianly will be one to watch out for in the Open in October!

A big thank you to everyone who got involved across the day. It was great to see you all in action! All photos from the event are up on our Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1355045525442998&type=3

For the full draws and results from the day please check out Sporty HQ here: www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-3-Central-England-Open-Bristol

Thank you to the Redland Green Club for hosting us once again, and of course our Series sponsors for all their support and for enabling us to keep these events running so smoothly for everyone.

See you all at the next one!

We are back to Redland Green Squash & Tennis Club in Bristol for another year and another sell out event!

It has been great to see the continuing trend in our UK Racketball 2024 Series of events selling out, and Bristol on the 20th April is another busy one. With all categories well subscribed and some really interesting battles in every draw, this will prove to be an exciting day of Racketball matches.

The O70s continues what could prove to be a season long duel between Graham Greensall and Ian Graham. Ian took the North East Open win over Graham last month, is it time for Greensall to get revenge? We can see these two having some good throw downs across the 2024 Series! A busy O60s draw of 10 players also has a very punchy line up. Patrick Osborn and John Cordeaux in opposite boxes, seeded to meet in the Final, but will have to get past the likes of top Series regulars Robin Chipperfield, Mark Banfield and Dave Merchant to reach it!

The O50s has increasingly seemed the most consistently strong category of the Series, and this round is no exception. Chris Wase leads the draw as top seed, but has two 2024 Series category winners to get past to take the win (Dodds and Hopwood), alongside a number of other quality local players. Learning his lesson from last event, no Doubles this time round for the Shropshire man! The quality continues on the O40s as we see a really great depth to the line up. Featuring the likes of Ryan Loska, past Ladies O40s National Champion Natalie Lawrence, 2023 British Open Semi Finalist Barry Talbot and 2023 British Open Finalist Adam Giles, this will surely throw up some great tussles. Loska currently joint leading the 2024 Series rankings, can he continue his strong start to the season?

A bumper B Grade draw of 16 players is great to see, with a number of Series regulars (up the Dover and IOW / Dorset crews!) mixing in with some new to the Series local faces. James Dean sits as top seed having reached the semi in Broxbourne earlier in the year. He will have a really tough route to the win if he is to get there though, with Steve McClelland, Nick Jenkins, Josh Williamson and Ben Pinfold as notable stumbling blocks. Whoever comes through at the end of the day will certainly have earned a pint! We have another busy Ladies draw, with a strong Devon contingent making their way up the M5 to scrap it out with the local players. Padel supremo and ex Edgbaston Priory coach Roxy Keshavarz leads the line up, but will have some good matches against the likes of Devon's Jo Perriam, Karen Bealey, and Bristol's Karen De Klerk. Fantastic to see a 7 player draw here, definitely an upward trend in Ladies entries this year!

The Doubles is topped by the dynamic destructive duo of Chappell / Norton, who are looking more and more like the ones to beat as we move onward in 2024. Norton sits at the top of the 2024 Doubles Series rankings so far and the two complement each other well with some quality attacking play. They won't have it all their own way here though, with opposition provided by the experienced British Open & National Doubles O60s Winners Osborn / Cordeaux, plus Loska / Keshavarz and Dean / Jenkins amongst others. Finally, the Open singles sees some already very entertaining 2024 rivalries renewed, with reigning UK Racketball Series Champion Alexis Smith leading the line up. Norton sitting at second seed looking to usurp his long time sparring partner, but they will also have to contend with Essex based South African ex PSA player Gary Naidoo, alongside the likes of Jason Russell, Alex Kershaw and Olly Staunton, all who have some quality Series pedigree! 

Can't wait to get the ball rolling in a week and a bit. Full draws and schedules can be found on Sporty HQ here: www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-3-Central-England-Open-Bristol

No live stream this time round due to the court set up unfortunately, but you can keep an eye out for the updates on our UK Racketball Instagram and Facebook pages across the day!