Bexley is a Jeal Steal!

The Jeal brothers from Kent combined to take three of the medals on offer at the London Racketball Open 2024 on Saturday 10th August at Bexley Squash & Tennis Club!

​A hot and sweaty day on the outskirts of the capital led to a long day of Racketball action, with some really tough battles from the first round at 9am, all the way through to the last match - the O60s Final finishing at 8.30pm! The quality never waivered across the day, with all draws well subscribed despite the mid summer calendar schedule. Fantastic to see such great entry numbers continuing post Nationals.

In the O70s, Ian Graham was back in the mix after having to drop out of the Nationals late on, and he resumed business as usual by taking the win without dropping a game throughout. He was pushed well by Graham Greensall though once again, who had done excellently to battle through a number of tough matches in the day, with tight 2/1 wins vs Paul Hudson Oldnall and Paul Loska in the lead up.
The O60s was a busy draw with 12 entrants and some top Series regulars in the fold, with Osborn, Wardle, Banfield, Chipperfield amongst a number of other top competitors. In the end Mike Wardle did really well to get past first Robin Chipperfield, and then Mark Banfield, both 2/1, to meet  National Champion Osborn in the last match of the day in the Final. While hinting at a possible upset by sneaking a game against the Mr Consistent of the category, Wardle wasn't quite able to finish things off, with Patrick taking the win 2/1, continuing his dominance this year.

The O50s was well subscribed once again, and gave us some excellent matches across the day. Murray vs Billington being a notably tough group stage showdown, Andy taking it in a very tight 2/1 win. Murray, Billington, Hall and Morris all made their way through to the semis stage, where the Shropshire Slogger proved to have too much in the tank for the rest as he mercilessly steamrollered the rest, not dropping a game to taking the title!
A few late ins and outs in the O40s led to an eventual draw of 5 players in one box, and some great games coming from it. There wasn't much in it at all for places 3-5 with Dewis, Jenkins and Barnes all having some great matches against each other. The top two though came down to O45s National Champion Ryan Loska and Wiltshire No 1 Adam Giles. In a fantastic upset win, Giles beat Loska for the first time ever, showcasing some quality heavy hitting being backed up better than before by being able to stay with Loska's endurance and movement ability. A great win for the big man!

A busy B Grade with 16 players involved is always great to see, and the groups were as competitive as ever, with one box coming down to a % of points won vs lost between three players to see who won through! Also a first game of the day going to 21/19!
In the end, Sam Jeal, Jodey Watts, Paul Strong and James McClean all made it through to the Semis, where an exhausted McClean went out to Jeal 2/0. Contrastingly, Strong and Watts had an absolute brute of a battle, with the Lee on Solent man coming through 14/12, 8/11, 11/9. From there though it was only one way traffic, with Watts' body and feet broken, and Jeal was in no mood for niceties, dispatching him 2/0 to take his first UK RB Series title!
We had two Ladies players in the B Grade and Ladies Open draw, with Jasmin Kalar and Phoebe Colman having some great matches throughout the day. When it came to their final, Kalar took an early lead going 1/0 up in games, but Colman managed to claw it back and takje the win 2/1 for her first Ladies UK RB title too! Both players already teed up for future Series events as they look to get England Team Selection for 2025.

Finally to the Doubles and the A Grade, where we had one of our busiest Doubles line ups of the 2024 Series with 12 pairs! A really entertaining mix of players involved and the usual shenanigans made for a great event. The top 4 seeded sides managed to make their way to the semis, where Phipps/Strong and Jeal/Jones overcame Loska/Hall and Osborn/Fernandez 2/1 and 2/0 respectively to set up a 1 vs 2 seed final. With all 4 of the competing players having had a number of tough matches in their singles categories, this was a match played on last legs, and the nous and hitting ability of Ted and Billy did the business for them, taking them to their first Series title as a pair of 2024, and putting them as ones to keep an eye on for the British Open and National Doubles Champs in the coming months...

The A Grade also suffered a couple of late drop outs but still maintained a quality 6 player event, every player involved having won Series titles at A Grade level before. In a repeat of two National Championship finals, it came down to Mike Harris and Ted Jeal to see who could be London Open Champion for 2024. Despite Ted hitting some quality shots and using all corners of the court, Harris' retrieval skills and relentless length hitting wore the Kent man down, giving Mike the win 2/0 in an entertaining and talkative match. Great to have Ted back in the Series mix however and he will be targeting an England slot too after a Semi Final showing in the Nationals last month.

Congratulations to all the Finalists and thank you to everyone who come and took part in another really fun and friendly day of UK Racketball Series action. Bexley hosted us fantastically once again and has always been a top venue for our events. Look forward to being back there again next year!

You can check out the full results of the day here: 
https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-7-London-Racketball-Open-10th-August-Bexley

With just FOUR events left on the 2024 Karakal UK Racketball Series calendar it is getting close to crunch time on the ranking lists:

2024 Series: https://www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1727

2024 Doubles Series: https://www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1995

​Lots still to play for then! You can get your name down for any of our upcoming tournaments on Sporty HQ on the below link, or simply email Mike at [email protected] if you have any questions at all.

www.sportyhq.com/organization/view/UK-Racketball

Hope to see you at an event soon!