packed out peterborough pulls in players!

After a successful Masters Intercounty Racketball weekend it was time to return to mainstream Series action, and we visited the Peterborough Sports Club on the 1st June for the Cambridge Open event!

It was brilliant to see this event following the foosteps of many other this season by filling out it's entry list with time to spare, and we had a load of new faces mixing in with the UK RB Series regulars across the day. The Peterborough Club has always been a really welcoming venue and with it's fantastically set up show court, it provided the players with a great viewing and playing experience. A huge thanks to the efforts of Andy Ruff for helping drive things at the club forward (and stepping in late notice to fill a B Grade drop out spot too.) On to the results!

A busy O70s draw with 7 players brought us some really tight games, with the likes of De Villiers vs Dubois and Livingstone vs Billson going the distance. In the end though, Geoff Wright came through dominant in the day, not dropping a game at all on the way to his title win, Terry James making it through to the Final and putting in a good shift to no avail. The O60s event lost a few entries in the lead up which mixed the draws around slightly. Still with the likes of Osborn, Chipperfield, Cordeaux and Holmes in the line up there were some tough fixtures across the day. Those four made it through to the semis, where the perenially strond duo of Cordeaux and Osborn managed to fight through to the final. Their 6574374583th match against each other over the years (*figure may not be entirely accurate.) This match up did not disappoint, with Cordeaux playing some high quality Racketball to take a 9/6 lead in the deciding 3rd game. However, Osborn was not to be deterred, and he showed his class and experience to drag himself back into the match, eventually taking the win over his regular Doubles partner 2/1 in one of the matches of the day. Very high quality!

A packed out and very strong Over 50s draw saw the return to action of Shropshire's Chris Morris for the first time this year, and he had a punchy line up to contend with, with the likes of Billington, Dodds, Smith, Hambrook and Millington alongside many others looking to take him down. The three box stages were very keenly fought, with Dodds in particular having to work very hard to come through 2 x 2/1 wins and a tiebreak 2/0 win to reach the semis. He however lost out to the big lefty Steve Smith, with Morris taking down best second place finisher Rob Hambrook. In the Final, Smith battled hard in the first to just lose out 11/9, but after that the pace and intensity of Morris' play was too much, and he went through to win the title 2/0! Gathering pace for a British Nationals push in July it seems...

We saw our strongest Over 40s entry for a while this time round, possibly as strong as the upcoming National Championships event! All the top dogs were in the mix battling it out, leading to some enthralling (and sometimes a bit spicy) encounters. Chappell, Alexis Smith and Loska all won through their respective boxes, with Colin Griggs coming out as best second placed finisher having pushed Chappell all the way in their box encounter. In two very well matches encounters, the relentless and consistent play of Loska took down the similar style of Griggs in the semi 2/0, while Smith's attacking nous did the same to Chappell's creativity and ball skill. The final was always going to be tough, Smith having won their previous encounter at Broxbourne this year, but Loska never one to shy away from a challenge. With a strong referee in the chair (kudos to Nick Jenkins for taking the unenviable task) this was a bit of a fractious encounter, but only in the competitive sense, with both players working at absolute maximum to get the win, inevitably therefore causing some friction between the two. In the end Smith came through once more with a 11/13, 11/6, 11/9 win in a battle that kept everyone on edge throughout! Alexis really looking strong this year backing up from his Series Title win in 2023... Loska I am sure will be back for revenge very soon.

It was great to have another Ladies draw, with two local players taking on the travelling Amanda Wykes in a box of three. Tanya Ruff took the title over her Peterborough compatriot Louise Field but both were pushed hard by Wykes, whose Racketball play is improving event by event! Really good to see a couple of new faces in this category and we hope to see them at more in the future. The B Grade was busy as always, with two boxes of 5 players getting their money's worth with 4 matches each across the day. In the end it came down to an all Kent and Dover Racketball Club show down between the two Nicks - Moore and Barnes, a Nick-off to see who could nick the most nicks! In the end Barnes proved to be too strong for his compatriot, taking the title with a 2/0 win, and (I believe) the first UK RB Series event win for the Dover massive this season!

Finally to the A Grade and the Doubles, and neither event disappointed. The Doubles had some really strong teams in box boxes and some very experienced campaigners. Osborn/Fennel and Kershaw/Norton both eventually making it through the day to meet in the final. Kershaw/Norton in particular getting a great win vs last year's Doubles National Champions Loska/L. Truman in their group. The North & South pairing managed to continue the good form by taking down the Essex duo 2/0 in the final, though the 2nd went 13/11 so could have very easily gone either way. Norton continuing his fine Series and Doubles Series form at the near halfway stage of the year with another win squeezing him further away from Loska in the title race.

The A Grade featured a few local new faces which is super, and it was one of these - Callum McGurk who battled his way through for a first UK Racketball Series title! The U19 player managed to do this without dropping a game throughout, though was helped in the final a bit when Norton started suffering from cramp in the start of the 2nd game. He will definitely be one to watch though as he has entered the Nationals in July, and his mixture of attacking play and sharp retrieval skills will definitely make the top seeded players a tad ancy...

Full results can be found on the event page here: PETERBOROUGH

And what it does to the Series and Doubles ranking positions here:

2024 Series - www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1727

2024 Doubles - www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1995/2024

Another top UK Racketball day at Peterborough and we hope to be back in force again next year!