Yorkshire Open 2024 – Review

We returned for another iteration of the Yorkshire Open at the wonderful York University on Sunday 14th July.

Despite the weather – and the tennis and football events going on! – we had a healthy number of participants and some great matches – great prep for all those heading out to Rotterdam in a few week’s time!

Men’s A Singles

The men’s A draw featured some new and some regular players, with 6 out of the 8 players competing in the World Champs this year. 

It was great to see Will Gregson making a return, and he showed his squash skills off with some great performances, coming 4th overall after a tight loss over Tom Atherton. 

Newcomer and squash player Gavin Stephenson also showed us his skills, narrowly beating both Tom Watson and Peter Barton to come 5th in the A grade in just his 3rd tournament, having won the B grade in Newcastle last year! 

Seeds #1 Matt Davidson and #2 Anant Gupta made it through to the final, but Anant was pushed all the way by Tom Atherton who came 3rd overall. 

In the final, there was nothing in it after the first two sports, but unfortunately Matt had to retire halfway through the squash. Well done to Anant on his A grade title. 

The highlight match of this draw was friends and rivals Jordan Marcus and Tom Watson, playing for 7th place in the final match of the day. 

Tom showed off his class tt play (show off!) by hitting a double handed backhand winner to win the table tennis to 13, before they battled it out in the middle two. In the tennis, Jordan was so close, reaching 18 before Tom clinched the 13 points needed and the win. No need to mention the conduct warnings given during this match!

L-R Matt Davidson (2nd), Anant Gupta (1st), Tom Atherton (3rd)

Women’s Singles

5 of the 6 players in the women’s draw will be playing in Rotterdam, and there were some excellent battles throughout this draw of two round robins followed by the finals, 3/4th and 5/6th playoffs. 

The 1# and 2# seeds, Matilda Parslow and Satarra Thaker respectively, won their boxes to set up a 5th match in a year between the pair, the first being at the Yorkshire Open last year! Matilda came out victorious, winning her 3rd title in York, but not without a spirited fight from Satarra, with the squash going to 22-20!

3rd place was taken by tt star Mollie Patterson, who beat Kirsten Atkinson with a convincing win in the front two sports. Despite a great squash set from Kirsten, it wasn’t quite enough and Mollie sealed her podium finish with a 10-6 tennis win. 

Ellie Thomas came 5th, defeating Fiona James, who played very well and was in good spirits all day, despite having entered the Women’s B and been put up to the A!

  L-R Satarra Thaker (2nd), Matilda Parslow (1st), Mollie Patterson (3rd)

Men’s B Singles

#1 seed Sam Barker was defeated by Men’s C Sprint Champion Ishan Bairoliya in the semi-finals, and #2 seed Shane Lindsay lost to newcomer Aaron Booth in the first round, meaning that the finals would be anyone’s game! 

Ishan showed his strength across all matches in the first two sports, winning 5 out of 6 sets to 7 or less, setting him up nicely to get the points he required in the final two sports and become the men’s B grade champion. He beat Aaron Booth in the final – a fantastic run for Aaron.

A highlight of the 3/4th place match was Sam Barker commenting that he’d never been bagelled before (losing a sport 21-0) – giving squash supremo Tom Trott a massive goal to try and ruin Sam’s record…. And he managed it! Well done to Tom on his first racketlon podium finish.

L-R Aaron Booth (2nd), Ishan Bairoliya (1st), Tom Trott (3rd)

Men’s C Singles

In group A Charles Moseley won both his matches to set up the final with Theo Bamert, the group B winner, with both seeded players losing one or both of their first matches. #1 seed Tim Fitches narrowly lost to Malcom Saperia by just one point.

In the final, Theo produced an amazing 21-2 win in the badminton to give him the victory – and the men’s C trophy!  

Henry Vernon, seeded #2, won a close game against Malcolm to take 3rd place.

L-R Charles Moseley (2nd), Theo Bamert (1st), Henry Vernon (3rd)

 O55s Singles

Group A was tough in the 055s, with two racketlon legends in Rakesh Gupta (seeded #1) and Izzy Bramhall. Izzy recently won the O55s in Ebbisham. Izzy’s table tennis and squash skills were too good in this box, putting her through to the final.

In group B, #2 seed Lee Gregson dominated, winning both of his matches to set up a final vs Izzy. Izzy proved too strong for Lee, with a confident performance in the first three sports to pick up her second senior title this year! 

Rakesh beat Steve Halliday with an impressive first two sports to take 3rd place, and Gary Lane beat Robert Pearson to come 5th.

 L-R Lee Gregson (2nd), Izzy Bramhall (1st)

A very big thank you to tournament director Sam Barker, and also to Kieran and Sophie who helped to organise and ran the desk seamlessly on the day.  

 Full results of the Yorkshire Open 2024 can be found here: https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=69d4ffa2-74de-4359-943f-f80ee4e51599

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Happy Racketloning!