Central Open Bristol Preview!

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!