The UK Racketball 2026 Series Kicks off!

We officially started the 2026 Karakal UK Racktball Series on Saturday 24th January with a big North & South Doubleheader weekend!

Running simultaneously we had the Scottish Racketball Open at Newlands LTSC in Glasgow, alongside the Trojans Southampton Satellite event. Over 120 players competing across the various categories at both events which was fantastic to see.

You can find the full results from both events here:

Scottish Open Glasgow - www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-1A-2024-Scottish-UK-Racketball-Open-Newlands-Sat-24th-January

Trojans Satellite Southampton - www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-1B-2026-UK-Racketball-Trojans-Open-Satellite-2026

Photos and some video clips from the Southampton event can be found here - ​www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1845024863111726&type=3

A few notable results from the events...

SCOTTISH OPEN:

- 2025 Ladies England Captain Jasmin Kalar takes a remarkable Men's B Grade and Ladies Open Double Gold after 6 matches in one day!

- Paul Knocker Norton (2025 Series Doubles Champion) resumed business as usual in the category, taking the A Grade Doubles with his partner Matt Bedwell once again. Adding it to the O40s title on the day too!

- Ryan Loska swapped the O40s category for the Men's A Grade, and manages to battle through to the final! Managing to take down some of our top Series A Grade regulars along the way. Scottish National Champion and Number 1 Matt Bedwell proving too hot to handle in the Final.

- The O70s box draw of 5 players provided us with some brilliant battles across the day. In the end it came down to Paul Loska vs the recently aged up Graham Holmes, both Series regulars at the top end of their age groups. Loska taking a tight 2/1 win to secure his first Series title of 2026!

TROJANS SATELLITE:

- A really well subscribed Ladies draw giving us some great matches across the day. Local Dorset player Sam Burnand doing well to come through a tough group and then take down Devon's Karen Bealey in a well fought final.

- Local Scot (who should really have been playing in Glasgow!) Martin Buchan managed to get through a really competitive and balanced B Grade draw to secure his first UK Racketball Series win. Going so far as to take the B Grade Doubles title with his partner Tom Sanderson too! Another Double Golder for our first outing of the year!

- The final match of the day - the O70s Final between John Herbetko and Paul Hudson Oldnall gave us an absolute treat to watch, with it going the full distance, 3/2 and 11/8 in the 5th to the wily Herbetko. Fantastic quality of Racketball from both guys, also lovely chaps to have on the scene!


Overall it was really positive as well to see that the new addition of the C Grade draw for the Open category was well recieved, with loads of new faces getting involved in both events. Hopefully this continutes to encourage more players to give the events a go and get in the mix with our great community!

Thanks to everyone who played and of course our host clubs for being so welcoming and giving us two great venues to play at. 

It's the Silverhook sponsored Broxbourne Open and the brand new Rhiwbina Satellite up next on the 7th February. Another double header weekend! The Broxbourne event is sold out already, but there is still space and time to get your name down for the Rhiwbina Cardiff Satellite event if still keen! You can enter via the below link:

www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Event-2B-2025-UK-Racketball-Rhiwbina-Open-Satellite-2025

Hope to see loads of you there!