British Racketball Nationals 2025 Report!

A very big British Racketball National Championships write up!

Across the weekend of the 18th to the 20th of July, Edgbaston Priory and Sutton Coldfield Squash Clubs both hosted over 400 matches between them for the 2025 British Nationals. 

This event with its largest entry to date of around 250 players covered draws from Juniors all the way through O80s which was absolutely fantastic to see. Highlighting the spread of play and accessibility of Racketball across all levels.

With so many different draws we would be stuck writing a small novel to try and encapsulate everything that went on, so we will try and keep it punchy!

Starting with the O80s, Andrew Rugg Gun of Sidmouth recaptured his title at the incredible age of 85, showcasing a fantastic amount of speed and agility for someone his age. Very inspirational for those of us already struggling at 35! 

Ian Graham was unstoppable in the O75s, taking the title without dropping a game, although his regular battle partner Graham Greensall gave a very good account of himself in the final considering a recent bout of injury frustrations.

The O70s, one of our strongest series categories in terms of depth, threw up a lot of upset along the way. Both of the finalists having beaten top seeded players in their earlier rounds respectively. Newly ''aged up'' Andy Mitchell of Paignton taking the title over Dorset John Herbetko after a great run of results.

The Women's O60 and O65 were both won by the ever consistent and hard to take down Leslie Sturgess, beating Jan Hazel Hunt in the 65s, and Liz Arnell in the 60s to cap off a very successful weekend of action.

The Men’s O65 also featured a host of upsets, Cornwall’s Chris Davey romping through the draw without dropping a game from a low seeded position, taking down Collis Sheik from EPC in the final, who also did well to get through on his return from injury issues.

The Men’s O60s was one of the largest draws in the competition, with a maximum 32 entry, and a very high level of competition throughout. In the end though it inevitably came down to Patrick Osborn and John Cordeaux in the final, John doing incredibly well to overcome a 0/2 game deficit to take down his regular doubles partner and good friend Patrick 3/2 in a fantastic display of ball placement and shot selection. 

The Women's O55 was captured by Siobhan Garland from Falmouth, a regular campaigner in the Nationals and one of the most welcoming and smiley people you will ever meet! The O50s was settled by an early round titanic battle between Sam Mueller and Jo Perriam, Sam taking a 70 minute five set battle 3/2 and then seeing through the rest of the group comparatively unscathed. A brilliant effort!

The men’s O55 featured two huge matches in the semi finals, with both one and two seeds dropping out to their 3/4 seated opposition in five game marathons. After that, it was a case to see who could pull themselves back together again to go one more time in the final, and David Evans managed to secure his first national title with a quality win over Nick Billington, in a match still lasting just shy of the hour mark.

The O50s was won by Jon Davies of Shropshire, showcasing a mixture of lovely ball skill and touch alongside some brutal heavy hitting. Chris Morris his county team mate never giving up throughout, and it would have been interesting if he had managed to force a fifth game in the final, with Davies' legs starting to go a bit!

The Men’s O45 featured two regulars at this level, Mat Lowery and Ryan Loska. Both of whom have beaten and lost to each other in recent years. Ryan has over the last 18 months been forced to really develop his game in response to some of the upcoming players in the series, and he show cased this with a masterful three nil win, absorbing everything that Matt threw at him across the match, and taking the ball in short better than ever before!

The Women’s O40s unfortunately lost a player close to the event, leaving it a box of three. There were some great games within this though, and Natalie Lawrence of Devon was unstoppable in winning through to take another title at this age category, her county comrade Karen Bealey doing well to finish in second place.

Alexis Smith had the run of his life in the O40s, not just avenging his loss last year to Alex Preston in the semi final in emphatic fashion (3/0), but then taking down top seed Mike Tolman in the final 11/9 in the 5th game, 3/2! Tolman has seemed unbeatable at this category to date, so a huge win for the Dorset man. 

A strong Men’s O35 was won by last year’s runner up Jason Pike, beating Kent’s Billy Jones 3/0 in a rather fractious final, both players fighting for everything. 

It was great to have both Women’s A & B Grade categories well subscribed with a large number of new additions! Karen Bealey going one better than her O40s runner up spot, taking the title over Devon team mate Jo Perriam in a great 3/1 win. The A Grade was won by Amber Marshall once again, beating Jasmin Kalar 3/0 in a close final, Kalar doing well to come through a strong group stage to get there.

The Junior draw was the largest we have had for a number of years and had a great standard throughout. Cornwall's Lewis Vintern losing out in a great final against newly selected England Team player Dylar Kalar. Dylan showcasing the skills that have helped him achieve selection across a consistent Series to date.

The Men's Open was once again compiled of A B and C Grades, the draws dividing out depending on whether you won or lost your first matches. Dan Colbeck took the C Grade final over Steve McLelland and Nick Lathbury fought through a series of brutal 5 set encounters to eventually overturn Alex Kershaw in the final in his first ever UK Racketball event!

Finally to the A Grade Open Championships, and Mike Harris was able to recapture his title to make it 8 Championship wins in a row. This time facing the surprise package of Jared London in the final, who did incredibly well to battle past 2nd seed Luke Bishop in a 70 minute 3/0 semi final win. Harris enjoying being on the other side of a tough draw for a change!

So that brings to a close an incredibly successful weekend of Racketball in Birmingham. Thank you to everyone who took part and made it such a fun tournament both on and off the court, to the markers and the UK Racketball organisers for working so hard, and also the sponsors for making it all possible and helping provide such a great experience for everyone.

​Full draws and results can be found here

Photos are up in our event Facebook album here


And match videos will be going up on our UK Racketball Youtube channel, alongside others such as World Squash57 and Lawrence Ogden!

Planning starts for the 2026 version already