Photo credit: The Northumberland Club
The Northumberland Open 2025 Report
Organiser and competitor Kieran Shelley reports:
The first day of November saw the UK Racketlon Tour return to The Northumberland Club in Newcastle for The Northumberland Open 2025.
Men’s A
The Men’s A saw two Northumberland Open regulars, Gavin Stephenson and Matthew Davidson as the #2 and #1 seeds respectively. Gavin was off the back of a win in Edinburgh 3 weeks prior and keen to earn a medal again, whilst Matthew Davidson was looking to keep his 100% win record up in Newcastle.
2 Durham University students in Ollie Barton and A-grade first-timer Fergus Wilson drew the seeds. Ollie’s impressive squash saw him take Matt Davidson to tennis with the latter achieving the 6 he needed to take the match by 21 points. Gavin meanwhile dispatched Fergus confidently by 31 points without tennis.
Stephen Davey returned to the UK Tour after an appearance in Edinburgh in October. It’s not often you play the same person in two UK Tour events in a row but Stephen and Kieran Shelley did after also playing for 3rd and 4th in the Scottish capital. This match was very similar with Shelley winning by 11, needing 8 in the tennis after a big squash win.
Jordan Marcus and Peter Barton battled it out for almost 2 hours in the fourth and final first round match of the Men’s A. Peter Barton was victorious by 8 points, securing the 18 he needed in tennis. The semi-finals saw both seeds victorious again. Both avoided playing tennis, with Davidson defeating Shelley by 25 points thanks to wins in the first 3, despite Shelley bettering his scores in the first 2 sports from when the pair met in York earlier on in the year. Gavin’s immense squash was exemplified with a 21-3 win vs Pete Barton. Although Barton insists this was not his finest hour on the squash court, this should signify why Gavin has adopted the nickname of ‘Juggernaut’ thanks to his relentless squash and fitness. Barton saw off Shelley for 3rd place with a strong win to 9 in badminton, needing just 9 in the tennis.
The final almost went all the way despite Davidson boasting a 25 point lead into the squash (pardon the pun). Gavin fought back in the squash with another 21-3 win, meaning Davidson needed 15 in the fourth and final sport. A bout of cramp and the distraction of a racket being thrown onto a heater next door wasn’t enough to prevent Davidson from achieving a 15-11 tennis win, and with it the Men’s A title. Ollie Barton beat Stephen Davey and Jordan Marcus to achieve 5th with Davey defeating Wilson in the wooden spoon match.
Men’s B
The Men’s B saw Newcastle student Robert Hill and UK tour returnee seeded #1 in this event. Northumberland Club member Akshay Pabray was tasked with facing him and unfortunately just lost out on a gummi-arm in his first ever Racketlon match. Unbelievably, his second match also went to a gummi-arm (which thankfully he won – losing two matches in a row on a single point would have been brutal!) versus Henry Bullough, fellow student of Hill’s.
#2 seed Joe Constable saw off Ali Saleem, who was off the back of a silver medal in Edinburgh, by just 3 points in round 1. John Nuttall was also a medal-winner in the Men’s C at York 4 months prior and defeated Bullough by 13 in their round 1 encounter here. In the final round 1 match, Rhys Melville took on Adam Turner with the pair racking up over 1100 miles of travel for this event, coming from Oxford and Hampshire respectively. Melville took victory mainly thanks to 12 points in Turner’s speciality, TT, and secured the 6 he needed in tennis. The semi-finals saw Nuttall defeat top seed Hill emphatically by 27 points before tennis. Meanwhile, Constable saw Melville off by 11 points. Nuttall again didn’t need his tennis racket in the final, securing his 2nd gold medal of the season. Hill defeated Melville in the 3rd/4th match by 20 points whilst Saleem overcame Pabary by 10 for 5th. Finally, Bullough saw off Turner by 19 in the match to avoid last place.
After a long day of Racketlon in the Northumberland Club, we took to the member lounge for the players dinner and some beers late into the night in Jesmond for another enjoyable social. Look out for this event again around the same time next year!
Huge thanks to The Northumberland Club for hosting us. Check out the full results here: https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=bc764527-73ed-45d4-926e-2b5ca9405d44
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