As part of an attempt to start recognising those clubs, people and sessions that spread the game of Racketball across the UK, we will start doing a monthly feature highlighting the great work that is going on!
First up is Hannah Hodgson's Laugh & Smash sessions at Marple Squash Club in Stockport, aimed at making Racketball a fun, friendly and accessible sport for Women's players of all ages and abilities. In Hannah's words... ''Laugh and Smash connects wellness and fitness in a fun, social way. Our women’s only programme has transformed racketball at Marple Squash in Stockport and we hope to roll out the magic across more clubs… like laughter, it's certainly infectious! We’ve seen more women attend Laugh and Smash than any squash coaching programme we’ve put on. It’s quite astonishing! Laugh and Smash was created from chatting with women in a group about what we wanted from a fitness class. We wanted daytime, we wanted fitness and something new. We wanted indoors. We wanted opportunity to meet people and chat. And we wanted fun! We advertised a 6 week pilot and it sold out to 15 fabulous women within 2 hours. It had taken 6 years to grow the squash club by that many female members previously. So what is it and what’s the secret? We start off with a 20 minute warm up session of Laughter Yoga, courtesy of Claire Scott, a Laughter practitioner (yes, really!) from Feel Good Communities CIC. If you’ve never tried it, do. Laughter and mindful breathwork for the body and soul. It’s a fantastic icebreaker, stress reliever and leveller. Then on to the racketball. Let’s face it, women like to be social. Our group is based on building a strong, connected community of women. We can’t do that by keeping quiet. My squash coach always told me I’d be much better if I stopped chatting. One of the great things about racketball is you don’t need to keep warming the ball up - so we have plenty of time for chatting AND playing. Racketball is a cool sport. We now have a regular Wednesday night session at Marple Squash Club funded by Sport England. The women can choose to join the regular Club night following the class. We ran a fantastic campaign in Women’s Squash Week in Sept to recruit new members to our group and to listen to why women want to connect and play. Overwhelmingly, this was about self care, mental health and connection. When you show up for yourself it feels great. Laugh and Smash makes you feel even better! Here’s some pics too! If you take a look at my FB page and Insta you’ll find loads more FB @Hannahhodgson Insta @Hannah_Hodgson '' Awesome work Hannah and co! We would love to hear about more sessions and clubs doing fantstic things like this, please email in to [email protected] to highlight what goes on down your neck of the woods!
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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! |
Our 2025 UK Racketball Series Sponsors!
February 2025
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