Reposted from UKRacketball:
On our first Series visit to Bristol it was the local players who came out on top in all but one of the categories…
On a progressively soggy day at Redland Green the Devon and Avon players did the damage across the draws, with only Paul Knocker Norton the sole Northbound M5 player to take a win!
Josh Smart from Devon was the stand out player of the event, with a hard fought 2/1 Final A Grade win vs Isle of Wight player Olly Staunton. He then backed up admirably straight away afterwards with his Doubles partner Jo Hutchings to take out pre event favourites Bishop & Allman in the Doubles final, in another brutal 2/1 showdown.
Hutchings himself proving to be no slouch on the Singles side, coming through the B Grade draw strongly, only to lose to Norton 2/0 in the Final. Calling many in the crowd to debate the legitimacy of Norton’s “B Grade” status given his quality play over the last few series events… A well deserved win for the Yorkshireman though in a quality B draw.
Phil Borrett, a Devon boy now living and playing in Bristol provided another title for the Southern possé by taking an on paper tight over 40s draw without dropping a game. His opponent in the final the mercurial Nick Jenkins trying all the tricks in his book, but no luck against the languid lefty style of Borrett.
The Over 50s was taken by local Avon and Redland Green player Roger Camp, who having dispatched one of the Series front runners Phil Hall in a tough 2/1 semi final, managed to see off Nick Billington from Shropshire in the final 2/0. Roger’s first Series event of 2023 and he is looking to gear up for an O50s charge going forwards!
In the O60s, another local legend Mike Martin took part in his first ever Series event and steamrolled through the draw, not dropping a game through the event. Graham Holmes from Devon did his best to make headway against him in the final bit to no avail. Graham doing very well to come through a tough draw in his own right.
All the draws and results can be found on Sporty HQ below, a big thanks to Redland for hosting us and we hope to be back next year for what already has proved to be a very well received and popular event with the players.
https://www.sportyhq.com/…/Event-3-South-of-England…
We are really looking forward to keeping up the momentum at the Scottish Open at Newlands in Glasgow in two weeks time. Still time to enter so don’t miss out there!
The up to date Series rankings can also now be found online, it’s getting tighter at the top after 3 events so it really is all to play for:
https://www.sportyhq.com/ranking/group/1727
A huge thanks to new UK Racketball Series sponsors Karakal UK for their generous entry gifts and support of the event at late notice. Great to have you on board and I know the players were chuffed with their new sets of Racketball strings and grips.
