Stourbridge Series Showcase Settles Super Season

On Saturday 30th of November we had the final event of the 2024 Karakal UK Racketball Series. After a year with at least one event per month this was a fitting way to end our busiest series yet, with a packed out day of high-quality matches across all the singles categories and in the very well contested National Racketball Doubles event.

This was our first UK Racketball trip to Stourbridge in Worcestershire, and we couldn’t have been made feel more at home, with this fantastic six court club being incredibly welcoming and providing us with some fantastic facilities. Apparently Racketball uptake is outstripping Squash there by a margin, and with the amount of local players entered into the draws, it is easy to see why! So firstly thank you to John and the Stourbridge team for hosting us so well and we’re really pleased to be revisiting you next year for the same event.

Onto the action, and with the Singles draws being added to by the National Racketball Doubles Championships this was an incredibly busy day of action with matches starting at 9am and being flat out all the way through to the Open Doubles final finishing at 8pm! The usual categories were well attended with the over 50s and over 60s providing the largest entry, but it was also great to see the Ladies, over 70s, and Mixed Doubles draws in particular having a real surge in numbers. Really positive signs moving into 2025!

With so many draws, I would be writing a lengthy(er) essay if I was to go into each event, but here are some of the stand out bits of the action:

- Rebecca Symmons gave us an unprecedented double, as she won not only the Ladies event, but also the Mixed B grade draw! Not dropping a single game across her seven matches in the day. A fantastic effort from Becky, her England representation chances looking good for 2025 at this rate.

- The over 50s was very strong for a series singles event, with all of the usual suspects battling it out for one final time this year. It came down to Smith, Davies, Morris and Wase in the semis, Wase scraping through by a 2% total points margin over Paul Dodds to become best second place finisher in his group. (Dodds rueing five tins in the third game in his 2/1 loss in his last group match...)

This quartet also were in action in the over 50s doubles final, with favourites Wase and Davies taking over an hour of gruelling battling to take down Smith and Morris 2/1 in games and 12/10 in the third to win the over 50s doubles title. They then had to go straight on to to play their over 50 singles semis against each other, with Morris outlasting Wase 2/1, and Smith managing to be a little bit more clinical against Davies winning 2/0. This proved vital in the final, as Smith was able to overturn a one game deficit to take the title 2/1 against Morris. A superhuman effort from all four of them playing 7 or 8 matches each across the event! Smith finishing the season on a high after his similarly big effort at the Leon Solent event at the start of the month.

- Another draw that saw some great action was the busy over 70s singles, where we had some really tight games through the day. A notable group stage result being Paul Loska taking down Graham Greensall to reach the semis. It was also a quality final in one of the last matches of the day, with current top dog Ian Graham being pushed all the way by Rob Lathbury, before coming back from a third game deficit to take the win 2/1 in a long day of five matches for the two finalists.

- As mentioned we had an excellent entry list for the National Doubles draws with the Open, over 40s, over 50s, over 60s and Mixed all being really well subscribed. Four out of the five finals went the full distance, (the over 50s we have already covered.)
The Mixed was won by local club and all family partnership of Andy Speake and Ruth Speake, who outlasted Beth Fisher and Jack Bennett also from Stourbridge in a really entertaining and well supported final 2/1.

The over 60s was a little bit more straightforward but still really well contested with the inevitable pairing of Osborn and Cordeaux beating Mark Banfield and Graham Appleby to nil.

The last two matches of the day were about as close as it could have been, with a lot riding on it for one man in particular. Paul Norton needed to win one of the two finals out of the over 40s and Open Doubles draws in order to clinch the Doubles Series Championship title over Patrick Osborn who had earlier done the business with John Cordeaux in the 60s. And what a pair of matches they were! It was the over 40s first up with his partner Andy Beel taking on Stourbridge duo Andy Speake and Andy Hart, who had a fantastic amount of local support from their clubmates and members. In a brutal game lasting close to an hour, Norton and Beel managed to save a match ball in the end taking the victory 12/10 in the third game, handing Norton the 2024 Doubles Series Championship title! Thoroughly deserved for one of the nicest and most entertaining players on the tour.

While the important bit had been done, that didn’t detract anything from the last final of the day which was the Open Doubles Championship final, Norton once again in the mix this time with regular partner Craig Chappell backing him up. They took on the newly formed Southwest pairing of Adam Giles and Mike Harris, who had been growing in confidence and consistency together as their matches progressed.

It was another great example of high-quality Racketball doubles, with Norton and Chappell taking the first with some brilliant winners and consistency, Giles and Harris then battling back in the 2nd to win it 11/9, featuring one of the most fortunate winners you will ever see on a Racketball or a Squash court by Harris to take the game. (Check out the video below!)

The third went virtually point for point all the way through with Giles and Harris managing to get to match ball first. This was then saved by Chappell and Norton with two very long and open rallies eventually allowing the Southwest pair to get their second match point at 11:10. At just shy of one hours play, a few shots later and an outrageous forehand boast nick from Giles saw them take the tie and the title 2/1.

We couldn’t have asked for a better day of matches with a more fun and sociable group of players. As well as the usual post event presentations, we also had several others as it was the last event of the year!

As already mentioned, Paul Norton took the first ever Doubles Series title, and it was over 40s and 45 regular Ryan Loska who took the Main Series title for the very first time. Ryan has been incredibly consistent across the events all year adding to his National Championship title with a host of British Open and Series event finals and wins. Another great supporter of the game it’s brilliant to see him getting his just reward.

For the first time this year we also wanted to recognise some of the playing community that outside of the series or around the series had been massive contributors to the game.

First up were the Men’s and Ladies Series Most Committed players, for people who we felt brought a big sense of commitment and involvement to the UK Racketball scene. This year's Men’s award went to Nick Jenkins, and the Ladies award to Amanda Wykes. Both players have been fantastic supporters of the Series and are always a joy to have around. In addition to this we asked the community to vote on who they would say is their Player's Player of the Series, this would be someone that is always there with a smile getting stuck in, helping out or just generally being a big part of the community. This year it went to Richard Cobb, who has consistently put in massive efforts to attend events and be a part of the UK Racketball set up, and who is a lovely chap.

The final award was for the Racketball Development Individual, this was for the person who we thought was really making an effort to push the game outside of the UK Racketball set up, develop their local county or club scene, or is bringing new initiatives to get new players on court. This went to Tommy Meadows of Dover Squash Club and Kent Racketball who as I’m sure all of you know is a fantastic guy who really cares about the sport and helping drive it forwards outside of the series as well as within. He thoroughly deserves this accolade!

Pictures and videos from the day are all up on our UK Racketball Facebook page as usual here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=UKRacketballSeries&set=a.1508004316813784

Then results from the day can be found on the Sporty HQ event page here: ​https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-13-UK-Racketball-Series-Finals-and-National-Racketball-Doubles-2nd-December-Grantham

​We will have a big end of Series wrap up coming in a week or so, keep an eye out for it! But for now, thanks to everyone who played in Stourbridge and congratulations to our victors!