North east open hallamshire 2024 - a strong line up across the board in sheffield

The third event of our increasingly busy 2024 Karakal UK Racketball Series kicks off at Hallamshire Squash & Tennis Club in Sheffield on Saturday 23rd March. Hallamshire has been a long time partner of UK Racketball, hosting the North East Open for a number of years, and then more recently the three major British Open Racketball Championship events. The Sheffield club has got a fantastic set up for events with a lovely bar and social area combined with some of the top courts in the UK< so we can't wait to be back there again!

We are lucky enough to also have the support from local business Abbeydale Brewery, who's quality range of beers have long rehydrated our hard working Racketballers at Hallamshire. This time they are kindly providing the category winning prizes so some extra bonuses for those who come out on top!

Now on to the action and the ones to watch! Another busy and high quality line up in the Open/A Grade event pits last year's Champion and Yorkshire RB stalwart Mike Tolman against a punch line up of challengers. Featuring Broxbourne's A Grade Champion Colin Griggs, other Yorkshire legend Paul Knocker Norton, and previous A event winners Alex Kershaw and Craig Chappell amongst others, this will not be an easy ride for the big left hander! The Ladies Open features another 3 Yorkshire players, locals Kate Martin and Holly Moore will continue their club rivalry alongside tournament organiser Nicky Horn, a previous Ladies event winner herself!

As usual the B Grade is very hard to call, with a lot of regulars all in the mix. Steve McClelland possibly the top dog in this one but he will certainly have his work cut out with 4 tough matches guaranteed along the way. A smaller O40s line up means a 3 way best of 5 game shootout between Barry Talbot, Ryan Loska and Jon Davies, all quality players so some top battles on the cards! Loska in particular looking to get back to winning ways after losing out to Alexis Smith in a high quality Broxbourne final in February.

There is another strong draw in the O50s, with 2024 Series event winners Paul Dodds and Andy Hopwood lining up against a whole host of punchy opponents, with the likes of Chris Wase, Nick Billington and Jim Muirhead amongst those looking to get their first Series event win of the season. Going to be some very tired legs after this draw! Another 2024 Series title holder heads up the O60s, with Scottish Open winner Robin Chipperfield at the head of the pack. The likes of Mike Fleming (Scottish Open runner up) and Graham Holmes will be looking to get a win on the board though so he will have to bring out all the backhand topspins he can muster to make it through!

A solid draw of 6 in the O70s is great to see, with the double major Champion from 2023 Graham Greensall as favourite, but with Colin Cruickshank making his way down from Scotland plus experienced campaigners Ian Graham and Geoff Wright in the mix, it will be far from straightforward for the Warwickshire man. Finally, another busy quality draw in the Doubles highlights this side of the game going from strength to strength! Top seeds are Norton/Chappell but they will be pushed all the way across the day by some of the other pairs like Wase/Davies, Loska/Kershaw and Talbot/Griggs.

A highly entertaining day of Racketball battles on the way then! Can't wait to get things rolling. Keep an eye out on the results as they come in via Sporty HQ here:

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

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