A Clean Sweep for Britain at the
English Racketlon Open!!!!
Date: 2004-10-12
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Only two years after the first trembling Racketlon tournament in England (the English Open 2002, see report) Racketlon now seems to be almost as established in the UK as it is in Scandinavia. The UK had, in fact, already before the tournament passed Finland as the second biggest Racketlon country - in terms of the number of players on the Racketlon World Ranking (162 players as against Finland's 147 - Sweden is still in the lead by 248). And the English Open emphasized this picture. With 88 entries from 9 different countries it became the biggest tournament so-far on British soil. Racketlon.com reports below from the third Racketlon English Open.
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The winners in all classes (men & women) at the third English Racketlon Open were British, with the most notable victory coming in the Mens Elite when Doug Struthers, the man who gave Eliasson a scare at the Gothenburg World Open last year, defeated Austrias number 1 Marcel Weigl in the final held at the David Lloyd centre in Heston last weekend. One onlooker reports .
Doug Struthers outlined his credentials as a Racketlon
powerhouse with a sublime victory in the third annual English
Open over the weekend 8/9/10th October. However, do not be
deceived by the large margin for victory in the final. Weigl
matched Struthers point for point until around half way through
the squash set, where he seemed, finally, to have run out of
energy. The match was level at 9-7 (Marcel marginally won table
tennis 21-19) however Doug, as the more experienced squash player
eventually found his rhythm and cruised home comfortably, game
on. Badminton was another surprise, Marcel again showed supreme
athleticism to match Struthers until the very end. 20-17 down,
Doug showed some clever spinning drops to fight back to win the
next five points. The Struthers serve was dominant in the short
tennis set, ending the match 11 points to 1. Two main factors
stood out from the Struthers (1st ever Brit to win an elite men's
tour event) triumph. Firstly, after a gruelling badminton point,
ending with a smash to the Austrian's body, Doug exploded roaring
"come on" twice. This guy has found some fight and some
heart and wants to play Racketlon and be the best. The second
feature which must be commented on, is the table tennis.
Stockholm last Junuary: O'Donnell 21-4 Struthers. London:
O'Donnell 21-19 Struthers. Sparring partner Chris Noakes meets
with Doug twice a week to practice routines and refine technique.
There is no doubt in this case, practice brings results!
It was a very interesting final to watch; Weigls amazing
energy levels and court coverage in the squash set was impressive
he has clearly improved at this discipline and at 7-7 many
of us began to wonder whether Doug would indeed be able to finish
him off which in the end he did. Marcel also led for the
entire badminton set (until the very end of course), again
showing incredible resilience and stamina. Also interesting
though was the way in which Doug lifted his game to destroy his
opponent in the final discipline, and alongside his 21-3
semi-final tennis defeat of ODonnell it proves you need to
be well up going into the tennis against Doug to have any
chance!!!
Before the tournament began a lot was being made of the two possible semi-finals between Doug and John, and Marcel and Calum. Between the two Englishmen the table tennis was the crucial factor 21-19 to John just wasnt enough for the brave brummie and Doug kept in touch before handing out a thrashing in the tennis. Maybe the possibility of moving to world number 2 put too much pressure on JOD?
Once again, Marcel v Calum was an excellent match and although not a gummiarm as it was in Scotland last August, there was only one point in it. Calum will admit that he did not do enough in the table tennis this time (21-13) although impressively he took Marcel to deuce in his third sport, badminton. It is possible that his first two matches were harder than Marcel's as he faced Gary Zucconi in the last 16 and then just edged out his fellow countryman Steve Thomson (+2) in the quarter final, but either way Im sure he will want to get revenge in Vienna if possible!
Henrik Håkansson will be disappointed to have been drawn
against the (unseeded) champion in the first round, but
consolation came as he won the plate event, defeating Niclas
Larsson in the final. The battle of the table tennis stars
(Belgium's Gert Peersman and Germany's Heinz Nowicki) in round
one was won by the Belgian although the table tennis failed to
live up to its billing both players nervous of giving away
too many points no doubt. Calum Munro had a fantastic first round
match against badminton expert Kristian Achenbach the
German won the badminton 21-12 but Calum managed to fight back to
win the tennis 21-7 and then take the gummiarm the
cautious Scot admitted he thought he had very little chance going
into the final set but he just did enough!
The ladies event went with the seedings although
unfortunately there was no time to finish the final (they will
complete it back in Scotland so I am told!), Sarah will no doubt
be favourite due to a very good start in table tennis (21-6).
Hopefully the two ladies will inform us when the rest has been
played!!!
The Class 1 event turned out to be a very strong affair with
newcomers such as eventual winner Darren Kerins, Mark Jackson and
Paul Hodgetts mixing it with the likes of Sarah, Phil Reid, Jez
Bennett, Richard Whitehouse and Stu Websdale to create some very
interesting matches and results, Stuart and Sarah being the only
2 seeds in the quarter finals and they had to face each
other!
Darren beat Sarah by 2 points in the final; I am reliably informed that she could barely move by that stage but to keep her to 1 at badminton and then match her at tennis is an excellent achievement, especially considering it is his first involvement with the sport let's hope we see more of him, and the other newcomers at future tournaments.
Up until now England hasnt had a problem with the amount of new players entering the World Ranking list, but now the quality and strength in depth of the English competitors is improving, undoubtedly helped by good publicity on the English badminton and table tennis websites (Darren K told me that was when he had first heard of racketlon, on the English badminton site 3 weeks ago)
Of course, England and Scotland are two separate countries and
will compete separately at the World Championships but on recent
results a Great Britain v Sweden team match would be very
interesting, and if you take into account Sarah v Lilian in
Scotland, John v Stefan in Germany, Dougs vast improvement
since losing 12 to Magnus a year ago and any one of 3 very
strong Scottish men at number 3 Im not sure the Swedes
would win
..but thats a discussion for another day.
Continuing the theme of successful newcomers Alistair Jones won
the amateur event, defeating Mark Scott in the final, very
impressive seeing as he only entered on the Friday night when
someone pulled out!!! A strong 2 sports player, he
seemed dead and buried in the semi-final against Katy B having
only won 13 points in the first two disciplines but then his very
strong badminton and strong tennis combination kicked in to win
it for him, exactly as it did in the final against Mark.
England also now seems to have 2 vets who can compete with the
worlds best in Graham Norton and Richard Whitehouse. They
both reached their seeded positions in the final where Graham was
defending his title won last year. Identical profiles for these
two men made for a very interesting and close final, although the
key in the end was Richards stronger squash which aided him
in his victory; Graham however ought to have done a little better
than 21-18 at table tennis as he plays more often. I am certainly
looking forward to more contests between these two men in the
future.
The second ever Racketlon doubles event was very warmly received
and very hotly contested. It is the nature of racketlon that
winners are very hard to predict, and in doubles it is even
harder! One or two people mentioned before the start that the
Scottish paring of Steve Thomson and Calum Munro would be the
ones to watch and in the end they won relatively easily, beating
the Austrians Weigl and Dickert in the final (+16). Their
badminton was, unsurprisingly, very impressive, beating O'Donnell
and Websdale (both strong badminton players) 21-8, also keeping
myself and Stuart Foster to 0, and we were lucky to get that
many!!! O'Donnell and Websdale knocked out the seeded Peersman
and Håkansson in the first round which was an interesting game,
and in the ladies doubles the Scots (Buchanan/McFadyen) overcame
the Germans (Seifert/Altman) by ten points.
The author was too tired and complaining of a coldand
had to drive on the Saturday evening to enjoy a night of
partying in Heston; however there is another
competitors perspective we can call upon
Phil Reid, Gert Peersman and Henrik Håkansson must be
further commended on a sterling, authentic performance on the
Saturday evening. Ian Wallace will make his 2nd appearance at
this year's world championships in Vienna if he has recovered.
Also, a special mention to Gert and Henrik's taxi driver who
managed to drop them home at 740 AM, after a 2 and a half hour
taxi ride (12 mile trip to the centre of London!!!!). The buffet
had some outstanding dishes and the timing was perfect. Steve
Thomson feasted on chicken and sausage, celebrating alongside
fellow Scot and Badminton specialist Callum Munro. The Scots had
just given a lesson to Weigl and Dickert in a pulsating final.
The doubles was a great start to the competition and a good warm
up for all involved. Future organisers should try where possible
to include such an event. Good luck to Stuart on his operation
this week, a somewhat remarkable fellow. Hopefully, in the future
volunteers will endeavor to support this competition and aid the
continual growth of this great sport
.
Of course lastly, many thanks go to Stuart for once again putting
in all the time (not only over the weekend but in the weeks
leading up to it) into organising this tournament and of
course thanks go to Katy too for yet again producing a great
website and sorting out the entries and draws these two
people do pretty much everything on their own; it is a wonder
they can find time to play as well! Also, thanks to Magnus for
not entering and letting someone else win!!
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Results in Summary (full results will be available on the English Open Tournament Homepage shortly):
Finals Results
Men's Open
Doug Struthers beat Marcel Weigl
19-21,21-10,22-20,11-1 (+21)
Men's Class 1
Darren Kerins beat Sarah Macfadyen
9-21,17-21,21-1,19-21 (+2)
Men's Amateur
Alister Jones beat Mark Scott
9-21,11-21,21-3,21-14 (+4)
Men's Vets
Richard Whitehouse beat Graham Norton
21-18,12-21,21-19,16-21 (+3)
Men's Doubles
Steve Thompson/Calum Munro beat Marcel Weigl/Michael Dickert
15-21,18-21,21-6,21-11 (+16)
Ladies' Doubles
Katy Buchanan/Sarah Macfadyen beat Silke Altmann/Irene Seifert
(+10)
Ladies' Open Plate
Helen Bandey beat Pernille Thomson
21-9,1-21,21-13,21-7
Men's Open Plate
Henrik Hakansson beat Niclas Larsson
21-10,21-19,17-21,21-15 (+15)
Men's Class 1 Plate
James Greenhead beat Wayne Donaldson
21-19,21-12,21-12,7-21 (+6)
Men's Amateur Plate
Andrei Wall beat Neil Russell
21-10,21-12,21-11
Mens Vets Plate
Sid Hodgetts beat Geoff Jordan
21-13,18-21,21-10,9-21
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