The Devon Open Review

Jones Claims First Win After Gumi-Arm Drama!

Henry Jones became the first Jones to ever win on the UK Racketlon tour when he claimed the inaugural Devon Open Men’s A title, with Gideon Brennan (Men’s B), Steven Ford (Men’s C), Stuart Vincent (Men’s D), Rufus Underwood (U14s) and returning stalwart Ed Harvey (O40s) joining him in the winners enclosure, at the Atlantic Racket Centre in Bideford. All the results can be found here.

Men’s A

In the Men’s A, it was a four player box league with local hopeful, coach and long time ARC evangelist Alistair Prades joining Jones, Johnny Bispham and Ryan Bezer. The opening round saw Henry take the first win over Prades by 12 points, and in the other match, dominant squash and tennis saw Ryan cruise past Johnny. In the second round of matches, the Devonian local dominated the badminton over Ryan, with Alistair running away with a comfortable win. Johnny had a strong TT win (21-12) over Jones, and the pair split the badminton and squash 21-8 each, which meant Johnny needed just 13 for the win into the tennis… and well, round robin draws can do funny things to Racketlon players! Henry raced into the lead, but Johnny clung on and squeaked his way to losing 21-12, giving us the gumi-arm we all wanted to see. It was a pretty decent gumi-arm as they go, and Johnny held his nerve to take the win, putting the cat amongst the pigeons (1 win and 1 loss for each of the 4 players!!)

Onto the final round of matches, and Henry worked his way past Ryan in a brutal match, the “easiest” victory being a 21-15 badminton set, holding on for a 7 point win. This left Alistair to play Johnny. Despite being firm friends for almost a decade on the Racketlon tour and having played doubles events together many times, Johnny and Alistair had never played each other before. The result in Bezer vs Jones meant that Johnny would either win the Men’s A (if he beat Alistair) or finish fourth (if he lost). Helped by a dominant badminton set, it was Alistair who took the win and with it second place on his home turf. 

 Men’s B – D

The Men’s B was a simpler four player round robin, with Gideon Brennan and Dan Lobato both reaching the final match against each other with a brace of wins each, having both see off the challenge of Matilda Parslow and Jack Powell (Tilda going down by just 5 and 7 points against both men, in a cracking pair of matches). The effective final was the closest of all. Gideon had a dominant start winning the TT 21-14 and the badminton 21-3, however Dan fought back a 21-4 squash win meaning that Gideon needed 16 points for the win, which he just reached with Dan almost at the finishing line on 20. 

In the Men’s C, it was our only Monrad 8 draw of the day, which saw Steven Ford face Kevin Hooper in the final. Steven led by 1 point into the tennis and it reached 20-20 in that final game of tennis. However as they switched to a serve each, Steven managed to get the two points that mattered most and earn the 22-20 victory. 

Stuart Vincent dominated the Men’s D dropping just two sports through the day in the four player box group. 

U14s

Three boys contested the U14s with both Rufus Underwood and Ross Lynd squeaking past Rudi Lobato by 2 points in two matches featuring some exceptional tennis in particular, in both cases finishing 21-19 to the victor. That left Rufus and Ross to contest the final, and it was Rufus who came out the stronger in that match thanks to the badminton and the squash. 

O40s

In the O40s it was a hugely successful Racketlon comeback for Ed Harvey. Back after several years out having first one and then the second hip replaced, our sport’s very own Andy Murray came and won his first tournament back on the UK Tour!

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The Atlantic Racket Centre was a fantastic venue for a Racketlon event and our thanks to everyone involved with the club players and staff for hosting us on Sunday, in particular to Tom Vinall who helped set up the event and also competed well in the Men’s C. Tom and everyone at UK Racketlon is hoping we will have many more trips to the scenic North Devon coast and the brilliant ARC club. 

Pictured below:

Men’s A:

Johnny Bispham, Ryan Bezer, Henry Jones (winner), Alastair Prades (runner up)