Morgan and James Win in London
2007-07-30
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Keith Lesser, in the lead of an English Racketlon take-off
fueled by the British Tour he started at the beginning of last
year, reports below from the London Open held in Wimbledon over
the weekend. The event attracted an impressive 62 entries (see Engine)
turning it into a good warm-up for the English Open coming up in
just three weeks time.
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It was perhaps of little surprise that the pre-tournament
favourites, Steffan Morgan and Alanna James added to their
previous racketlon victories. Alanna won the English Open Ladies
B event in 2006 and Steffan has previously won the 2006 Hampshire
Open and has a silver medal from The South of England Open.
Impressively, this in most Racketlon fans minds, cements Steffan
as the third best player in England, behind John ODonnell
and Doug Struthers. Steffan having never lost to another English
player
.by golly he was close though. Graham Norton, Simon
Lucas, Neil Rossin and, in the final surprise package, Richard
Macbride all gave Steffan a run for his money. However, the
squash man really had to count on his other sports and not just
squash to secure victory. Alannas journey was more straight
forward and it would be interesting to see her face some good
international players in 3 weeks time! Fiona Sime in 2nd and
Sharon South (Dan Gilletts older sister) in 3rd also
impressed!
Macbride probably had an even bigger roller coaster to the final
than Steffan. Stuart Hobden announced well you would have
got long odds on the number one and two seeds being dumped out in
round one. Thats exactly what happened, with Macbride
knocking out Lesser and newcomer Alex Hartley defeating an off
colour Ray Jordan. Richard then proceeded to knock out the ever
impressive Rhodri Oliver (more on him later) and then,
surprisingly, one of the favourites; Hobden himself. Hobden,
perhaps the player in the draw with the strongest chance of
beating Morgan. Profile-wise it would be close; Hobden would win
table tennis and tennis and Steffan squash and badminton (but by
how much?). Incidentally, it became irrelevant at 8-4 up in
tennis (games were to 11 in the rounds before the final) Hobden
crashed a volley wide and Macbride was through. The squash in the
final 15-6 to Steffan shows very well how the profile game
works. If you lose your best sport 15-6 you are stuffed, well,
not always
Class A generally very strong!
The top half certainly seemed stronger than the bottom half. With
the exception of Morgan all top half players won the play offs
for 3rd v 4th, 5th v 6th and 7th v 8th. Hobden, Rossin, Oliver,
Hartley, Stockdale (welcome back) and Lucas all good players.
Then you get to 9th Hamza, 10th Lesser, 11th Norton and 12th
Shaw. 13th Jordan! 14th & 15th were both occupied by
badminton players; Ventham and Ashton are ranked in the top 20 in
England at their favoured sport. Certainly, this was the
tournament of the British Tour so far! How nice of Jordan to give
Ventham his first taste of Gummiarm action. Jordan winning again,
will he now go on to set a record for consecutive Gummiarm
victories?
Rhodri Oliver, at 17, reminds us all of a young Calum Reid, if
not a bit calmer on court. Rhodri possesses clinical tennis and
excellent table tennis, comfortable in badminton, but poorer at
squash. In 5 years time, who knows, Rhodri may well be competing
with the best in the world. Certainly, he has surprised us all
with some outstanding results, winning Class C at The British
Champs, Class B in Hampshire and now 5th in Class A in the London
Open and he had a very good chance to reach the final. In the
quarters against Scottish powerhouse Macbride, Oliver needed to
win by 11-7 or less. What should have been a formality did not
quite come off. However, the future bodes well for Rhodri, not to
mention his younger brother Alexander (19th in Class B!).
No Joy for Table Tennis King!
Eli Baraty (an ex-England international) tried his luck in the
Class B event and had some very close matches, winning all of his
table tennis and tennis matches. However, with little badminton
and squash experience, Eli struggled in these sports. But the
left handed ping pong player has expressed an interest at winning
the 2008 World Championships to be held, potentially, in London,
well havent we all
.;-)
Best of the Rest Mackney finally fulfils his
potential!
The Class C event was won by established Racketlon player Ian
Mackney, beating table tennis specialist Ken Connor in the final.
Mackney will now look to step up to Class B, where Daniel Gillett
has issued a special challenge; Come and get me!
There are certain things that just seem to go well together in
life. Smoked salmon and cream cheese for example, another example
is Thame and Racketlon. Mark Scott won the Class B event and has
shown huge improvements from his previous performances. Hardly
surprising. He practices with Doug Struthers and Alan Cornish.
That must be the best practice combination in the world, quality
and enthusiasm must work a treat! Rod Robinson & Co put up a
fight, but really they didnt have a chance against the
Thame Centre of Excellence. Oxfordshire should be proud! Nice to
see Kevin Neville back and playing well, 4th place in B. He
endured a horrendous injury at the 2006 British Champs, so lovely
to have him back.
Nothing left to see, except what a wonderful event! See you in 3
weeks
Results, London Open
MEN'S A
1st Steffan Morgan
2nd Richard Macbride
3rd Stuart Hobden
4th Neil Rossin
5th Rhodri Oliver
6th Alex Hartley
7th Tor Stockdale
8th Simon Lucas
9th Keenan Hamza
10th Keith Lesser
11th Graham Norton
12th Gareth Shaw
13th Ray Jordan
14th Martin Ventham
15th Mark Ashton
16th Rob Greyling
MEN'S B
1st Mark Scott
2nd Rod Robinson
3rd Gary Jackson
4th Kevin Neville
5th Samuel Scharf
6th Nick Webb
7th Julian Walton
8th Paul Mantovani
9th Duncan Marlow
10th Nick Pearce
11th Robbie Wong
12th Stephen Perkins
13th Alan Cornish
14th Stephen Blacksell
15th Hiantee Pang
16th Daniel Gillett
17th Guy Grayson
18th Mark Lewis
19th Alexander Oliver
20th Mark Ritson
21st Bob Grayson
22nd Jonathan Healey
23rd Ed Qualtrough
24th Eli Baraty
MEN'S C
1st Ian Mackney
2nd Ken Connor
3rd Tony Wright
4th Brendan Carroll
5th Geoff Jordan
6th Perry Fung
7th Andrew Yates
8th Charles Eaton
9th Gavin West
10th Rory Scott
11th Robin Woodhatch
12th Euan Robinson
13th Anthony Yau
14th Chirag Patel
15th Alex Hoad
16th Andrew Brunton
LADIES' A
1st Alanna James
2nd Fiona Sime
3rd Sharon South
4th Rosie Smith
5th Susie George
6th Kira Petersen (cousin of Andy?)
/KL
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