Oxfordshire Open 2025 – Review

Oxfordshire Open 2025

James Pope reports:

Rob Rhodes claimed his first UK Racketlon senior tour title with victory at the Oxfordshire Open, while Ellie Thomas and Anant Gupta claimed the Elite titles. There were also wins for Joesph Fitches (U14s), River Fontanelli (Girls U14s), Rhys Melville (Men’s D), Jack Taylor (Men’s B) and most dramatically of all Ivan Parslow (Men’s C). On a glorious equinox day as the sun shone, the UK Tour arrived at St Edwards School in Oxford, for one of the highlights of the season. All the results can be found here.

In the Women’s A, Ellie Thomas was top seed in the four woman box, joined by Beth Milburn, Olivia Clark and Daniela Ellis, as fellow ladies Matilda Parslow and Jess Johnson gave the men a run for their money! Beth and Ellie both came past Olivia and Daniela, with some entertaining matches not least the squash between Beth and Daniela, finishing a lung busting 24-22 to Beth. This helped set up an effective final in the box between Ellie and Beth. Ultimately, Ellie had just too much for Beth, dominating her particularly in squash, and taking the win to get her 2nd Oxfordshire title.

An 8-draw monrad awaited the Men’s A where top seeds Anant Gupta and James Hempstead both progressed to the semi-finals to be joined by James Simpson and Kieran Shelley, however our seeded pair were not troubled by their opponents as they progressed to the final. It was a gripping final, the TT (21-9 to Gupta) and the squash (21-9 to Hempstead) cancelled each other out, but perhaps the highlight of the final was a stunning badminton battle. Both players exhibited incredible attack and defence, but you could see the benefit to both players of being the one on top. The match see-sawed and it came down in favour of Gupta, a 23-21 victory. Ultimately, that meant the top-seeded Anant held a slender 2 point lead into the tennis, however it would prove to be a relative formality as Anant cruised to a 21-9 victory and took home the Oxfordshire title, his second in the Men’s A.

The Men’s B also featured a final between the top 2 seeds, as top seed Jack Taylor took on second seed Matilda Parslow. After Tilda edged the TT 21-18, Jack’s incredible badminton stole the show. Having already demolished James Trueman 21-2 (leaving James a little stunned), he handed out a similar thrashing 21-1 to Tilda, and after also taking the squash 21-18, he needed and swiftly earned the two points on the tennis court to claim the win. A third Men’s B title for Jack, and you would suspect a last, as he will be surely taking those epic badminton skills into the Men’s A at future events.

The closest final of the day was found in the Men’s C, where Ivan Parslow faced Christophe Firth in the final. After the pair traded the TT and badminton 21-5 each, Ivan won the squash 21-12, meaning he would need 13 for victory in the tennis. Christophe held his nerve as the scores got tight to win that tennis 21-12 and set up a gumi-arm. Your humble scribe did not witness the gumi-arm, but big sister Matilda assures me that it was an ‘extremely tense’ rally in which neither player was going for the shots (a bit like the rest of the tennis) and ultimately Ivan came out victorious to claim the title, by the barest of margins.

British Championships Womens Doubles Podium

The Men’s D final featured James Clarke and Rhys Melville, who both came through their 3-player boxes to reach the final. Rhys took the TT, before James struck back with confident badminton and squash victories. However, Rhys came back well in the tennis and claimed the win with an 18-7 victory to claim the title.

British Championship Podium - Mixed Doubles A

In the U14s, Joesph Fitches and Jack Soper came through their respective three player boxes to reach the final, including a win for Joesph over his GB U14s 2’s team mate Millie Rhodes. However, in the final Joesph had too much for Jack and claimed his second junior title on the UK Tour.

With two girls also in this competition, Millie and River Fontanelli battled for the Girls U14 crown as well. After trading the opening sports 21-18 a piece, River showed her brilliance on the squash court, winning 21-4 and leaving Millie with too much to do on the tennis court, to claim her first title on the UK tour.

But, all Rhodes do only lead to Victory, and we finish with Rob in the Over 40s. Having defeated his GB O40s 2’s team mate Tim Fitches (and exacting some family revenge) he faced Racketlon veteran Rakesh Gupta in the final. Rakesh, having survived a surprising (and seriously it was really surprising, even for James) comeback in the tennis from James Pope to win by 3 points to reach the final. It was a cracking final, as with several of our finals at this event our competitors shared the opening sports, and so Rakesh took a slender 1 point lead into squash. Here however, Rob delivered what he described as his “career highlight on a squash court” in that match, he won 21-12 and needed just 14 for his first Seniors title (and first UK Tour win since Oakham 2022).

A special mention must go to the huge number of members of the same families playing at this event – we had the Firths, the Fitches, the Fontanellis, the Guptas, the Parslows, the Coulsons and the Rhodes!

Congratulations to all our winners, and a big thanks to Peter Browning and Jane Galsworthy for running another great Oxfordshire Open and a huge thanks to St Edwards School for hosting us. If you are in and around the Oxford area, Peter and Jane organise regular training sessions -possibly the secret to their 2025 County Championship victory – so do get in touch!

Full results can be found here: https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/tournament/F4D9FC18-CD60-4D39-B949-56F59ABF8F65

Tournaments open for entry can be found here: https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/find?StatusFilterID=2&DateFilterType=0&StartDate=2025-09-25&EndDate=2025-12-29&Distance=15&SportID=12&page=1

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