*New UK Racketball End Of Series Award Announcement*

We are pleased to be able to announce a new end of Series player award for 2025, slotting in alongside the current Player’s Player, Racketball Develoment Individual and other awards. We believe this new award will really represent the true values of UK RB and the yearly recipient of this will in our eyes definitely have earned their place as one of the key individuals in the game.

This new award will be called the “BTL” or “Bar Takings Legend,” going to the UK Racketball player who each year goes above and beyond to stimulate the local economy and keep Squash clubs and local bars and pubs afloat in the Series event regions when they travel there to compete.

As we all know, post event rehydration is key to any sporting success, and the player awarded will be one of those who showcases exemplary committment to the cause.

Special points for:
- Friday night pre tournament “trade negotiations” in the local Wetherspoons
- Starting mid tournament and maintaining competitive play quality
- Ending up having consumed more pints than games won (does negate the second point however)

We have some serious effort already going into this award, with the likes of Knocker Norton, Adam Giles and Callum Arnott putting in some hard Series hours. This could really go to the wire in its inaugural year, and committment across the Majors weekends - the British Nationals and Open could be decisive.
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Good luck all!

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

After what seems like an eternity since our last event (the Silverhook sponsored East of England Open at Broxbourne in the start of February,) we are back with our third event of the 2025 Karakal UK Racketball Series! The North East Open at Hallamshire Squash & Tennis club in Sheffield.

The long time UK Racketball venue has some of the best courts in the country and a great showcourt set up for all it's glassbacks, so it is a real pleasure to be back there again. Now to the action...

- A bumper 9 A Grade draw sees young Dylan Kalar in as favourite as he seeks to push on England selection later this year. But he will have a real depth of quality players to get past to get his second Series title with a host of evenly matches opponents along the way.

- Dylan's sister Jasmin is the top seed in the Ladies event, nearly qualified for England herself, just one event win away from being all but in the side! It's great to see a number of new faces in the rest of the Ladies draw as that side of the game continues to grow.

- The B Grade has the unusual line up of all players involved having not won a B Grade Series comp before. Meaning it is up for grabs for a first time winner! Some hungry eyes on the prize this time then... 

- The O40s and O50s events both have seriously punchy line ups, with several players needing some good finishing positions coupled with some head to head wins to boost their England selection chances! These two draws will definitely provide some entertaining battles across the day and whoever comes out top will certainly have earned their post event rehydration at the club bar.

- The O60s and O70s draws have two very big line ups with 16 & 12 players respectively. The 70's in particular is very strong. with the likes of Ian Graham returning to Series action, current Series top dog Paul Loska in the mix, alongside top players like Rob Lathbury, John Herbetko and last year England player Geoff Wright. The O60s has lots of players in the running for the top spots, with the local legend and recently ''aged up'' Jim Muirhead looking to kickstart his new age group with a bang against the other top players like Mike  Wardle, Mark Banfield and Robin Chipperfield!

- We are doubling up on the Doubles draws, with an A and B Grade event once again! Ryan Loska is looking to continue his great start to the Doubles Series rankings, partnering up with 2024 National Doubles Champ Adam Giles for this event. They will have strong competition though, with 2024 Nationals Finalists Norton/Chappell out for blood, and the family duo of Smith/Smith also proving to be strong competitors in the 2025 Series already.
The B Grade sees two previous B Grade Doubles winners going head to head, with John Waller sans his partner Stu Tyler and therefore roping in mighty Tommy Meadows in search of title No 2. They will come up against another local duo in Graeme Manson and Nick Robinson, Manson looking to follow up his Scottish Open B Grade win in January!

Should be a top day of matches across the board and we can't wait to see who manages to come out on top! Big thanks to Hallamshire for hosting us once again, always a great venue to have a super Series day of action. Full draws and schedule can be found below, keep an eye out throughout Saturday for result updates:

www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-3-2025-North-East-of-England-Racketball-Open-22rd-March-Hallamshire

As things in the UK Racketball Series progress at pace it is important to make sure that we keep tabs on any changing rules and regulations in the game.

The World Squash Federation (WSF) have recently released an updated Rules and regulations for Racketball / Squash57 and so it is well worth making sure you check them out as UK Racketball will be keeping up with the changes for all Series and National events.

https://www.worldsquash.org/squash-57/squash-57-rules/

One key rule is the detail regarding Racketball racket length and dimensions. Notably:

​''The SQUASH57 racket has the same length specification as both the American Racquetball racquet and the Australian Racquetball racquet. The details are contained in the SQUASH57 Rules, a link to which can be found above.
Any racket longer than 22” (558.8mm) will not meet the specification requirements for American Racquetball, Australian Racquetball or SQUASH57. Any racket weighing more than 280g will not meet the specification requirements for SQUASH57.''

UK Racketball will therefore be enforcing this ruling regarding the correct racket from the 1st January 2026 (start of the next UK Racketball Series) for all its events. Players that have rackets that do not fit within the required specifications will not be able to use those rackets at UK Racketball events.

The list of currently non confirming rackets can be found here:

https://www.usaracquetball.com/play/rules/non-conforming-racquets

Any questions at all regarding the rules in any form please don't hesitate to get in touch - [email protected]