Super Series Review

We’re now halfway through the 2024 Super Series and it’s time to look at how the first two tournaments panned out, as well as looking at the players who have qualified already for the FINALS tournament on Sunday 1st December in Nottingham!

As a quick recap, the super series categories are: Men’s, Women’s, Boys, Girls, Seniors, Men’s Newcomers, Women’s Newcomers. Newcomers eligibility: any player that played their first UK Racketlon tournament in 2024.

Surrey Classic – Super Series 1

The Surrey Classic was held at the lovely Bourne Club on 1st September, where the players and supporters enjoyed some lovely sunshine (or extreme heat, if you happened to be in the badminton hall!).

A big thank you to Bourne Club and an even bigger thanks to tournament director Sam Barker!

Men’s A

The Men’s A was all to play for, with one player saying that ‘basically anyone could win it.’ And that definitely was the case!

First, we must mention the racketlon legend that is Ray Jordan making his comeback. He put up an excellent performance against young whipper snapper Anant Gupta, but didn’t quite get over the line with a +4 win to Anant. Great to see you back on court, Ray!

The first semi-final saw recent returner James Simpson take on Anant. Despite losing the badminton 21-3, James managed to hold big enough leads in the other three sports to book his place in the final.

In the other half, James Langworthy played Alex Du Noyer (how many times has that been now?!), with James digging deep in the middle two sports to take the win and meet the other James in the final!

In the final, it was an extremely close battle, going into the tennis nearly even. A special mention must go to James L’s squash – he just did not give up on any point against the squash specialist James S, which went on to matter a LOT.. After an extremely long and tense tennis match, James L emerged victorious with the scoreline at 19-20! Anant beat Alex +26 to take 3rd place.

L-R James Simpson (2nd), James Langworthy (1st), Anant Gupta (3rd) 

Women’s A

The Women’s A was contested in a 4-way round robin, all competing in search of the automatic qualification to the Super Series finals.

Newcomer and padel player Bethany Eccles put up an excellent fight in her first ever racketlon tournament, winning a set of table tennis, squash, and tennis throughout her matches! Definitely an all-rounder to look out for in the future. Bethany was victorious against also-fairly-newcomer Kayleigh Chapman, with an excellent performance all the way through by both players in a tight match. 

Ellie Thomas took 2nd place, with dominant squash wins against Kayleigh and Bethany to pick up another medal to add to her ever-growing collection! Matilda Parslow was the overall winner, not needing to get out her tennis racket – this means she is the first women’s qualifier for the Finals event!

Left Picture – L-R Ellie Thomas (2nd), Matilda Parslow (1st), Bethany Eccles (3rd)

Right Picture  – First Qualifiers for the Men’s A and Women’s A Super Series Finals – James Langworthy and Matilda Parslow!

+55 Seniors

Izzy Bramhall wasn’t seeded 1 for nothing! A recent entry to the over 55’s category, Izzy breezed her way to another title, defeating 3 players and playing some very solid squash to get her to victory. 

2nd place went to Malcolm Saperia, who had some incredible tennis wins to get to the final.

3rd and 4th was contested between table tennis whizz David Barr and Malcolm Burr, with David using his table tennis skills to record a +26 victory for 3rd.

 L-R Malcolm Saperia (2nd), Izzy Bramhall (1st), David Barr (3rd)

Men’s B

#1 seed Jon Spinks had comfortable wins against Luke Penna and Ian Johnston to make the B final, with unseeded long-time racketlon player Rakesh Gupta taking out the 2nd seed Rob Bozier in the first round. However Rakesh couldn’t take it one further, losing +15 to David Bennett. In the final, Jon Spinks was consistent across the board, beating David in each sport to need 8 in tennis to win!

L-R David Bennett (2nd), Jon Spinks (1st), Rakesh Gupta (3rd)

Men’s C

U18s GB player Thomas Agombar was the dark horse in this men’s category, only needing 6 points of tennis across all his matches on his way to take the title. He beat #2 seed Andrew Heath in the final, which included an incredible table tennis set. #1 seed Yudo Wong took 3rd place with a +17 win over Mark Brown.

L-R Andrew Heath (2nd), Thomas Agombar (1st), Yudo Wong (3rd) 

Men’s D

The father-son duo of Stuart and James Vincent were seeded #2 and #1 respectively – and met in the final! In an intense match where both players did not want to lose, it went right down to the wire, with James beating his father +3 overall in what was an excellent performance. Patrick Jeffrey picked up 3rd place with a +22 victory over Shayan Joya thanks to dominant TT and tennis victories. 

L-R Stuart Vincent (2nd), James Vincent (1st), Patrick Jeffrey (3rd)

Junior U14s

Newcomer Cameron Firth is definitely one to watch in the junior categories, winning the U14 category comfortably, dropping just one squash set throughout, and even that was in deuce! Recent convert Henry Dobson took 2nd place, with strong wins over Noah Penna and 3rd placed Joseph Fitches.

 L-R Henry Dobson (2nd), Cameron Firth (1st), Joseph Fitches (3rd)

Stamford Open – Super Series 2

And now we move onto the second Super Series event, which took place at Stamford School, Stamford on 15th September. Stamford has become a regular event on the UK tour, boasting excellent facilities and providing the Midlands with a great, convenient tournament! Many thanks to tournament organiser Kieran Shelley for all his hard work on this event.

An incredible statistic about this competition is that a whopping 19 of the players had a family relation or partner also playing! We also had 14 women, with a full A and B grade, which is so great to see on the tour.

Men’s A

A rare 4 player round robin made up the Men’s A, with tournament regulars Dan Busby and Matt Davidson facing the challenge of GB 2nd team player Tom Atherton and tournament organiser Kieran Shelley.

Matt and Dan had an extremely close match to play for 1st and 2nd place, with Matt getting the 15 he needed in tennis to win the title and become the 2nd automatic qualifier for the Super Series finals! 

 Men’s A Winner: Matt Davidson

Women’s A

The Women’s A was extremely strong, with 2 British Champions among the 6 players.

In box A, #1 seed Holly Ranson, and current women’s British Champion, booked her place in the final needing just 5 points of tennis. Newcomer Yuzen Wong put up a great fight against England table tennis player Mollie Patterson, losing on a gummi arm!

In box B, #2 seed Jo Shelley had a good win against returning player Susie Dilloway, whilst unfortunately Kirsten Atkinson had to retire with an injury.

In the final matches, Jo Shelley put up a good fight against Holly Ranson, but Holly took the win with the tennis at 5-5, becoming the 2nd automatic qualifier in the women’s super series. Susie Dilloway took 3rd place over Mollie Patterson – great to see Susie back on court!

 L-R Jo Shelley (2nd), Holly Ranson (1st), Susie Dilloway (3rd)

Men’s B

Another round robin made up the Men’s B grade, with Billy Sutton-Mattocks taking the men’s B title, using his badminton and squash strengths to power to victory. It was great to see Nick Rate returning from a nasty knee injury; unfortunately he had to retire from his 3rd match – but welcome back!

Ian Johnston recorded two comfortable wins for 2nd, with Leigh Ware (and Stamford School teacher!) coming in 3rd place.

 Mens B Winner: Billy Sutton-Mattocks

Women’s B

It was wonderful to have 3 new players in the Women’s B draw, and some familiar faces from a while ago too!

In group A, newcomer Sophie Brealey beat #1 seed Fiona James in a really close match to make it through to the final.

In group B, a former racketlon junior, Claudia Vincent (yes, a relation of the other Vincents playing in the men’s!) made her comeback to the sport, with 3 comfortable victories to meet Sophie B in the final. In the final, Sophie’s badminton proved too strong for Claudia, with Sophie getting the 9 points she needed in tennis to win her first B grade tournament!

GB Junior player Emma Ranson was improving with every match and finished with a great win over Fiona for 3rd place.

 L-R Sophie Brealey (1st), Claudia Vincent (2nd)

Men’s C

The Men’s C was incredibly close all round, with 2 players winning 3 / 4 of their matches, but losing to different people! The winner was Tim Fitches, who only started competing on the UK racketlon circuit this year, but has already got 4 tournaments under his belt! Tim just pipped David Swindell to the post, with Malcolm Saperia taking 3rd place.

 L-R David Swindell (2nd), Tim Fitches (1st), Malcom Saperia (3rd)

Men’s D

Stuart Vincent (father of James and Claudia, also playing!) won all his matches in the D grade to win the title. Stuart only lost 2 rubbers all day in a dominant performance.

Chun Ho Fu, playing in his 2nd tournament of the season, took 2nd place with table tennis player James Patterson coming in 3rd.

Junior U14’s

Joseph Fitches (Tim’s son) improved on his 3rd place finish in Surrey, winning all of his matches and taking the U14 title here in Stamford. Joseph dropped just the one rubber all day (table tennis to Charlie Hunter), in a truly impressive showing. 

Sam Ware (Leigh’s son) came second, and Charlie Hunter came third. It’s lovely to see the next generation of racketlon players coming through the ranks and we hope to see you all again soon!

Men’s Qualifier – Matt Davidson

Women’s Qualifier – current British Champion Holly Ranson

Huge thanks to Sam Barker and Kieran Shelley for their hard work in running these excellent tournaments. Thanks also to The Bourne Club, Farnham and Stamford School for hosting us and for providing their excellent facilities.

Full results of the can be found via the links below:

Surrey: https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/events.aspx?id=30353018-a404-4792-86da-9366ca3b9140

Stamford: https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/events.aspx?id=48E61D82-F5D1-49DF-93D3-8F8D62079378

We are very much looking forward to the second half of the Super Series – the Somerset Open and the Northumberland Open!

Enter here: 

Millfield, Somerset: https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/tournament/D4D3BDE2-3A15-4988-A510-7EA417434A5B

Newcastle: https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/tournament/AC1DC4C6-72F5-4760-B3C7-7B46B2696BA9  

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Happy Racketloning!