Hallamshire Series Event 3 round Up!

A top day of Karakal UK Racketball Series action took place at Hallamshire Squash & Tennis Club in Sheffield on Saturday 22nd March. Our third Series event of the 2025 campaign, it featured a number of the age categories heaviest hitters battling for vital Road to England Selection rannking points, alongside some less regular faces and UK Racketball first timers!

Hallamshire is always a top venue to have any event at, and they made us feel really welcome on Saturday, with their fantastic show court set up and great bar making it a really enjoyable day for all participants. With a maxxed out entry list and some really balanced and competitive draws across the categories, it was a great example of the level of Racketball across the age groups in the UK.

The Kalar siblings proved once again to be two of the hot new prospects in the UK Racketball Series, Dylan taking the Men's A Grade at the age of just 16 years old, beating Craig Lloyd in the Final who also did well to come through a tough draw. Jasmin winning the Ladies without dropping a game all the way through, having a good final against Yorkshire player and UK RB first timer Diane Fenwick to finish!

The B Grade had a new Champion in Tommy Meadows of Dover! A very popular man amongst the Series players, it was great to see him get his first Series title, beating experienced Hallamshire player Graeme Manson in a tight final. Tommy also doubled up (in every sense of the word) as he and best mate John Waller took the B Grade Doubles title over Paul Hudson Oldnall & Nick Jenkins. Waller is two for two this year in Doubles B Grade draws, one to watch out for!

The O40s and O50s were filled out with some really top players, all looking for those vital finishing positions to help their England Selection case. Ryan Loska proving to all that he is still the man to beat in these events, taking another title without dropping a game. Though he was pushed hard by Craig Chappell, who did well to get past Alexis Smith on his way through the draw. The O50s was an incredibly strong line up, possibly the strongest Series event level draw we have had, with the likes of Wase, Smith, Davies, Powely, Dodds and Billington all having won either Series or Major titles at this category! After a long day of slugging it out against each other, Smith was (finally) taken out by  James Powely, and Dodds by Jon Davies. Davies then proving to have too much for the very solid and consistent Powely, taking the final 2/0. At this rate the O50s Nationals in Birmingham in July is going to be an absolute battle royale!

Busy O60s (16) and O70s (12) draws were great to see, again with an incredibly strong depth of player to the line ups. Without Cordeaux and Osborn in the 60s it was open to lots of players to have a shot at the title, and it was local man (the best dressed series player in our opinion) Jim Muirhead who took the title. Celebrating his recent ''aging up'' into the category! Well done to Graham Holmes for coming through a tough bottom half of the draw to reach the final. The O70s was taken by the returning to action Ian Graham, though he was pushed all the way, dropping games in each round. The categories Mr Consistent for 2025 so far Paul Loska, came through the similarly tough bottom half, but couldn't find a way past National & Open Champion Graham, who still remains to be the overall man to beat in the category.

Finally, the A Grade Doubles was won by national runners up Norton & Chappell, who came through a tough 4 team draw, especially doing well against the Smith/Smith duo to see them off in the final match. Showcasing again the spread of quality and the increasing level of the Doubles game in the Series!

So a fantastic day of action with an absolutely top bunch of players involved. Thank you to Hallamshire for hosting us once again and we can't wait to be back there for the Open in October!

Full results below on Sporty:

www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-3-2025-North-East-of-England-Racketball-Open-23rd-March-Hallamshire-Sponsored-by-Abbe

Pictures on our UK Racketball Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1589849278629287&type=3