Harris Jones and Gregory showcase their Racketball skills at the 2023 Karakal British National Championships
Mike Harris, Ben Jones and Mike Gregory all competed in July’s Karakal British Racketball National Championships at the Edgbaston Priory Club in Birmingham and did fantastically well across their age categories.
Jones played in the Junior Mixed Championships for the first time and managed to come through as the title winner in only his first full year of playing Racketball competitively (having previously been a regular Club team player in the Squash section.) He didn’t drop a game in the whole event, showing how strong his Racketball game and nous has become.
Gregory, a regular high level county and national level Racketballer over the years was competing in the O50s category for the first time, and came up against one of the strongest draws in the competition. He managed to get through to the final too without dropping a game, but then came up against former Squash WR No 3 Simon Parke. Theirs was a really high quality match with both players exploiting the full space of the court and all the possible angles and heights. In the end despite his best efforts Mike came out a 3/2 loser to Simon, but in a battle lauded as the best match of the Championships. I’m sure he will be back next year for revenge.
Harris was top seed in the Men’s Open category, looking to break the Men’s record for most Open Racketball British Championships won consecutively (5 – jointly held by Tim Vail and Daryl Selby) and equal the overall most (6 – Lauren Hill). Despite having some tough battles (notably against Cornwall’s Jared London in the Semis – 3/1 to Mike, and Matt Bedwell in the final – 3/0 to Mike) he managed to secure his place in the record books and gain his 6th consecutive British National title.
Congratulations to our trio of top Racketballers and thank you to all of the Exeter Golf and Country Club Squash and Racketball section members for their messages of support and for tuning in to the live streams online over the weekend.
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