This weekend offers a thrilling racketlon doubleheader at both ends of the country, with the Northumberland Open in Newcastle on Saturday, November 2nd, followed by the Hertfordshire Open in Letchworth on Sunday, November 3rd.
Northumberland Open 2024 – Super Series 4
Starting with Saturday, the final super series qualifying event of the 2024 season takes place at the magnificent Northumberland Club in Newcastle. This is the last opportunity for players to secure their places in the super series rankings and qualify for the Super Series Finals in Nottingham on Sunday, December 1st.
It’s also rare treat for the racketlon community to have a Saturday tournament, opening up the chance for players to explore ‘the toon’, with Newcastle regularly touted as the best UK city for a night out!
Lets take a brief look at the draws and see who are the favourites to come out on top.
Mens A
Local lad and Great Britain A team player Matt Davidson will not be in be in attendance this weekend, as he competes in the Austrian Open World Tour Event in Graz! Best of luck Matt, (and also UK Racketlon legend Keith Lesser).
This now opens the door for a new winner on the Super Series circuit this season, in a four-man A draw. Jonny Ritter will be favourite to take the title and he starts against last years winner in the men’s B, local squash supremo Gavin Stephenson. Father and son duo Peter and Ollie Barton face off first in the other men’s A opener.
Women’s A
Last year’s Northumberland Open champion Jo Shelley will be favourite to bring home the title once more, but can she hold off the challenge of rising star Mollie Patterson? A former England international table tennis player, Mollie has been showing remarkable improvements in the other 3 sports, and it will be intriguing to see if how her game matches up against 5 time over-50 World Champion, Jo. Alisha Gupta will also be hoping to cause an upset, looking to utilising her badminton skills against the TT and squash specialists.
Men’s B
Men’s B has been split into 2 groups, with top seed Ian Johnston starting off in Group A against Christo Myburgh and Jack Bonner. Group B is headed up by 2nd seed and GB junior Thomas Agombar, who will battle it out against Joe Constable and last year’s Men’s C winner Robert Hill.
Men’s C
The Men’s C draw contains very few tour regulars making it extremely difficult to predict, however it’s fantastic to see new players, as well as a few returners from last year’s event. The first round of fixtures are as follows: James Patterson v Jordan Whitmore; Ali Saleem v Joshua Bodri; Henry Bullough v Ish Atchia and Joe Chitnis v Rhys Melville.
Junior U18’s
Fergus Wilson is the number #1 seed and will be hoping to go one better than his 2nd place finish at the Oxfordshire Open last year. He starts in group A against Joe Sanderson-Reid and Tom Richardson.
Group B consists of Jacob Atchia, Enzo Mills, Charl Myburgh and Edward O’Sullivan.
Junior U14’s
In another healthy junior entry, the U14’s see’s 4 first-time players compete for the title. Ronald Xue Lee will start against Harvey Tse, with Joel Wass facing Philip Moss in the first matches in this round-robin event.
Best of luck to all players and look out for the tournament review in the coming weeks, including the completed list of qualifiers for the Super Series Finals! Results will be posted on tournament software.
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Next up, lets take a quick dive into the Hertfordshire Open, taking place on Sunday
Hertfordshire Open 2024
Letchworth Sports and Tennis Club plays host to our 2nd racketlon tournament of the weekend, expertly organised as ever by racketlon legend George Roberts. Whilst no Super Series points are up for grabs here, the competition will still be fierce, so let’s take a look brief looks through the draws below.
Mens A
Last year’s tournament winner, Dan Busby comes in as number #1 seed in the Men’s A and will be hoping to use all his experience to defeat badminton specialist Angus Pederson in the opening round. Competing to play the winner of that fixture will be two former GB juniors, Jamie Watkin-Rees and David Bennett, in what could be an intriguing match-up. On the other side of the draw, number #2 seed Anant Gupta faces tournament organiser George Roberts whilst Ross Wilson will be hoping to edge past Stamford Open Men’s B winner, Billy Sutton-Mattocks.
Women’s A
The Women’s A is a 4 player round-robin event and number #1 seed Katie Hill starts her bid for a first UK Racketlon title against the experienced Joanna Bennett. Katie and Joanna met before at Letchworth, two years ago, with Katie coming out on top by +7 after an impressive tennis 21-9 tennis set. Hannah Taylor faces up against her former British Champs doubles partner Frances Steel in the other opening fixture.
Men’s B
In a first round battle of youth versus experience, number #1 seed and GB veteran Duncan Marlow will take on rising junior star Raif Fontanelli. On the other side of the draw, 2nd seed Ishan Bairoliya will take on Paul Puget in what could be the match of the round. Ishan will be out for revenge after defeat to Paul in the Surrey Open back in June. The winner will face the victor of TT star Ricky Hardcastle and Oliver Dickmann-Pena, whilst the final opening round will see newcomers Nicolas Dickmann and Raphael Reeves go head to head.
Men’s C
Bora Molla is seeded at #1 in the Men’s C and will begin against Josh Loyd, whilst number #2 seed Mark Brown will take on Stephen Lloyd. Tour regular Adam Turner will face TT specialist Gael Guetard, with Thomas Chen and Christophe Firth completing the first round line-up.
Men’s D
Number # 1 seed Phil Pinto begins his quest for a first UK Racketlon tour title in a battle against fellow GB +65 team mate, Ray Ryan. Elsewhere in the Men’s D it’s a real family affair with Rob, Tom and Chris Gibby all somehow managing to avoid one another in the first round!
Junior U14’s
In the U14’s Cameron Firth will be the strong favourite, following on from his impressive victory at the Surrey Classic, back in September. He starts against Sam Sturmer, with Edward Baker facing Peter Pospisil in the first games of the round robin.
Best of luck to all players and look out for the tournament review in the coming weeks. Results will be posted on tournament software