KEY CHANGES TO POLICY FOR 2026 ONWARDS

Happy New Year all!

With the first events of the 2026 Karakal UK Racketball Series getting rolling in a couple of weeks time (24th January at Trojans Southampton & Newlands Glasgow) we have a couple of key reminders for you all. These will be put in place from the first events of the Series onwards, and will encompass every single UK Racketball run event. This includes all Series events, Nationals, British Open, Intercounty teams and any other competition that UK Racketball is in charge of / taking the lead on.

Please see below:

RACKET SPECIFICATIONS:

- We already work in line with the World Squash Federation (WSF)'s policy on approved balls for events (Karakal our lead sponsors are one of two in this category), but we will now also be following the guidelines as to approved racket specifications too.

These can be found on the WSF website here: www.worldsquash.sport/squash57-ball-racket-specifications/

The list of rackets that are affected are attached by PDF at the bottom of this article.

There are several rackets in common circulation / use that DO NOT hit the correct measurements (they measure too long, which is deemed by the WSF to give an unfair advantage) so please make sure to check your own equipment just in case. While we appreciate that this could be quite annoying in having to purchase a new racket, with the progress that the game is making on a European and Worldwide scale we need to do as much as we can to have a clear set of guidelines across the board for the sport.

As far as UK Racketball events are concerned, if you have a ''non conforming'' racket at an event, you will be notified on the day. You will be able to use that racket on that particular event but then will need to replace it with a correct specification racket for any future UK Racketball tournaments.


OVER 40's DRAWS:

Due to the rise in popularity of the ''Graded'' categories in our events (A and B Grade, and now the C Grade), we have seen a drop off in entries in the O40s category in our one day Series and Satellite events over the last 12/18 months or so. Many O40 aged players competing in the Grades draws rather than the age category. Which is no problem from our point of view, we want people to be competing in the draw they are happiest in!

This does mean that we have to have a think about the O40s category going forward. So this is the plan:

- It will still remain a category in all events, the Nationals and Open still also having O40s and O45s draws as well.

- If there is an entry of less than 4 players in an event, those already entered will be contacted and moved into either the A/B/C Grade of that tournament. In some cases (schedule depending) it may be possible to still have those players compete against each other as a means to decide an O40s winner, but they will do this alongside their graded event matches. (More games for everyone then!)

- With the Road to England selection still being applicable to the O40 age group, ranking points toward that will be decided based on your finishing positions in your Grades in relation to the other O40 entrant players.

PLEASE NOTE: you will only be included in the Road to Selection standings if you enter the O40s category initially and then get moved across. If you enter the A/B/C Grade draw primarily, your finish position will NOT be factored in.


SQUASH57 / RACKETBALL LEVELS:

The new Squash57 Levels system is really taking off across the UK and it is really great to see more and more county leagues, graded events and team game matches being included in it. We believe that it will be an incredibly useful tool to helping grow participation and interest in the game so please do get involved in it if you haven't done so already:

https://app.squash57levels.com/dashboard

It does obviously provide us with some very good input into results and playing levels for the people entering our events. So as we move forward into 2026 we will be using it more and more to help grade our events, to make sure everyone is in the correct category and make everything as balanced as possible. 

Obviously as it is still growing, not all Levels will be 100% accurate quite yet so we won't be diving in to fully using it entirely for a few months, but it will certainly be used more and more as the 2026 Series progresses and onwards.


So a few bits to bear in mind moving forwards! if you have any questions at all please feel free to email Mike at [email protected] to chat!

Thanks all and look forward to seeing you on court very soon.

list_of_nonconforming_racquets_2_22_2021__1_.pdf
File Size:	256 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---