The Best Ever Final?
Date: 2005-09-28
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Is racketlon on the verge of a true take-off in the UK? 87
players took part at Scottish Open last weekend, making it the
biggest tournament ever on UK soil. Raymond Jordan, part of the
organisation team behind the imminent English Open that is set to
break this record with a margin, reports from Edinburgh.
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Mats Källberg and Calum Reid contested possibly the best men's
final in a tour event so far at the Scottish Racketlon Open held
last weekend in Edinburgh. Mats, going into the tennis +3,
eventually reached the 19 points that he required for victory,
despite a sequence of 10 points in a row that saw Calum move from
7-13 down to 17-13 up. They both edged forward from that score,
and at 20-18 to Calum, just as the young Scot needed a further
point to take the match to a gummiarm decider, Mats touched home
the winning volley from right over the net to record his first
ever tour win. This incredibly close final follows others this
year, most notably Lilian v Silke 3 weeks ago in Germany and
Calum v Rickard at the Czech Open and shows the excitement factor
is higher than ever as the winner of each tournament becomes
increasingly difficult to predict.
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Mats Källberg, Sweden. Winner of the Men's Elite Class.
Open Draw
The Men's draw in Edinburgh was always going to be very open with
the four seeds Mats, Calum, Rickard Persson and John O'Donnell
mixing in with hopefuls such as Christian Wall & Michael
Dickert. Michael beat John in the groups in the only surprise
result of the Elite event, which meant there were four table
tennis specialists in the semi-finals (as there should be!) Both
matches were very close at the last fourth stage but neither
Rickard (losing for the ninth time in a row to Mats) nor Michael
(losing for the fourth time in 10 months to Calum) could manage a
victory. Rickard started amazingly well in the first two sports
against fellow Swede Källberg in the first semi-final, getting
14 in table tennis and winning badminton for the first time.
However, after a surprisingly weak squash performance (winning
only 21-15) his confidence dropped and Mats won the tennis set
relatively easily (21-12) to book his place in the final. Rickard
looked despondent after that defeat, "I have lost some
motivation. I will play in Vienna this year but after that maybe
only travel to the interesting destinations and the World
Championships." In the other semi-final Michael came close
once again to troubling Calum but could not win the first two
sports heavily enough and suffered a squash defeat that was too
large to recover from. His three group victories will propel him
to the top ten in the world though - "My victory over John
was the most impressive one since I beat Marcel", the
24-year-old is going from strength to strength.
The final itself was an excellent match from start to finish.
Calum began by playing very well in the table tennis - 10 points
against ex professional Källberg is always a good score - by
attacking more than he had done in previous matches. Mats'
defence is of course very good, but Calum is very consistent and
accurate on the pingis table and had a large number of
opportunities to score points, many of which he took. The
badminton also went the way of the Swede though it was tight to
start with, and they moved into squash with Mats 20 points in
front. At this stage Calum's typical determined character
manifested itself in the form of a squash hammering; 21-4 to the
Scot who retrieved some incredible balls. Onto the tennis and
with a difference of three points it could have gone either way.
Both players began fairly slowly, with Calum in particular making
unforced errors and the score moved on to 13-7 to Mats where it
exploded into life. Calum won 10 points in a row with an array of
fantastic passing shots, generating huge cheers and applause from
the partisan crowd. At that point cramp set in for both players,
with the Swede stretching his calf muscles out whilst holding
onto the net post, and the Scot lying on the baseline swearing
under his breath. They both recovered however, only for Källberg
to snatch victory on his fourth match point with a touch volley
that Calum failed to return. "A fantastic victory for
me" Mats said, with a large grin just before the prize
ceremony.
Best ever racketlon point?
With the score at 19-18 in the tennis to Calum
(match point down) the two finalists played out possibly the best
ever point racketlon has seen, especially considering the match
situation. After a long baseline rally Calum played a drop shot
that Mats was just able to reach. He came in and played a gentle
forehand down the line, seemingly out of reach of Reid, who
acrobatically played a full length diving volley 'Becker-style'
back across court, which caused Mats himself to dive full length
towards the ball - unfortunately for him he missed it and both
players were down on the ground for a few seconds as their
efforts were appreciated by the large number of spectators.
As per usual the men's event produced some cracking games; Steve
Thomson beat Calum Munro in the clash of the two friends with
identical profiles. President Mullamaa achieved 17 in badminton
against Mathias Fagerström - the most points the badminton guru
has ever given away with the feather balls. In the same group
Mathias then went on to lose 4 points in a row in the tennis set
against eventual winner Källberg, including two match points at
20-18 up (they were level before the tennis). You sense that
Mathias is getting ever closer to his first tour event final with
each tournament. Christian Wall, some people's outside bet for
the tournament, came unstuck against Calum in his first match
before winning his remaining two games - although one very close
against Joachim Nilsson (+1). Joachim tested Calum in their
match, and it was clear to see why he has been performing so well
recently, he has improved noticeably in all four sports.
Mcfadyen wins again
The ladies' event was a little more predictable
than the men's, and although Sarah Mcfadyen hadn't played a
tournament since Vienna her class showed through as she beat all
that were put before her to record her sixth tour victory and her
fifth final win in a row. The final was contested between Sarah
and world number one Lilian Druve, who has been training hard in
recent months and shown considerable improvement in both table
tennis and squash, so there was every reason to expect a closer
match than we had seen before between these two. Sarah however,
got off to the perfect start by winning the table tennis 22-20, a
very pleasing result for her considering how little she has
played recently. The first discipline proved to be the key, as
the other three sports went true to form with badminton and
squash cancelling each other out and Sarah easing home relatively
comfortably in the tennis to the delight of the home crowd. Sarah
did admit she had lost a little motivation for racketlon
recently, but hopefully the positive experience of this
tournament, both organising and competing, will bring some of the
desire back for her.
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McFadyen is back.
An unfortunate groin injury deprived Katy Buchanan the chance
to challenge Sarah at the semi-final stage with 'P' Thomson
taking her place as group winner after defeating former Scotland
table tennis junior Hannah Milne in a very close match. P
performed very well once again and it is clear to see that court
time with Austria's number 1 man has improved her tennis and
'pingis' recently. She will be in London and looking to better
her performance of this weekend. Both Sarah and Lilian eased
through their groups with relative ease, but group 4 was always
going to be the interesting one. England no. 1 Natalie Lawrence,
Germany no. 2 Irene Seifert and the dangerous yet unseeded Linda
Jansson (Sweden) were pitched together in the 'group of death',
with tennis expert Jansson coming out on top and Natalie
finishing second. Linda didn't get the chance to test world no. 1
Lilian in the semi-final as it was over before the tennis -
Druve's experience and all-round consistency were just too much
for Linda to handle.
It is unlikely that Sarah will be able to compete in Vienna
due to increased work commitments following her promotion, so it
will be down to Katy to mount the main challenge from the UK (as
long as she stays injury free), along with Natalie. It was
extremely encouraging to see a large number of Scottish ladies
entered - the number of female 'home nation' entrants also looks
good for London, perhaps now there will be a bigger acceleration
of interest amongst British women.
The veterans was another very open affair, although it ended on
rather a disappointing note with Kevin Lawlor reaching the final
and then having to rush off to a prior engagement, leaving
Richard Whitehouse with no opponent in the final. Before the
tournament, all four seeds would have fancied their chances and
indeed they all progressed to the semi-finals where Graham Norton
faced Kevin and Richard played Dave Greatorex. Kevin got off to a
great start beating Graham 21-8 in table tennis and then securing
an advantage before the squash. In the end he took that
comfortably although there is no doubt that he ought to have
conceded the match during the tennis in order to let 'taxi
Norton' progress to the final to play the IRF statute
proof-reader from Stoke. Richard had a comfortable victory in his
semi-final; after getting 14 points in table tennis against
'Moosehunter' he beat him at badminton to take a lead going into
the squash - Richard's strongest and Dave's weakest discipline.
Richard won that comfortably, although it has to be noted that
superior fitness in the badminton and squash seemed to be a vital
part in Whitehouse's victory.
Fitness is undoubtedly an extremely important part of
racketlon and the stamina of the vets is of a very high standard.
Richard Whitehouse at 53 would be able to out-run a large number
of his twenty-something counterparts, but the most impressive
fitness levels must be those of Alan Cornish. Alan, who lives and
trains near racketlon legend Chris Noakes, will be 65 this year
and annually competes in the London Marathon - last year
achieving a time of 3 hours 20 minutes! He had a tough group in
Scotland, losing to both Richard Whitehouse and Chris Davison,
and then losing to Colin Ross by one point in an extremely tight
match, Alan snatching the table tennis and squash with Colin
(friends with Munro & Thomson) dishing out a hammering in the
badminton.
Stuart Websdale won his second Class 1 title in Scotland,
following his victory in Belgium. He had an easy time of it in
the groups with two walkovers - quite fortunate seeing as he
suffered a recurrence of his ankle injury - before beating Ray
Jordan in the semi-finals and racketlon newcomer Dan Carpenter in
the final. Ray couldn't perform well enough to mirror the result
the last time they played (gummiarm in Coventry) despite Stuart's
injury. The other semi-final was another very close match; Dan, a
real 'two sports' player with excellent tennis and very good
squash came through the Class 1 group of death and then beat Mark
Jackson in the last four. Although Mark dished out a badminton
hammering, Dan won the other three sports (including 21-5 at
tennis) to progress. Stuart knew he had to avoid playing the
tennis against Dan to stand a chance in the final, especially as
his ankle was still hurting, and fortunately for him he did so,
with table tennis and squash victories sandwiching a badminton
thrashing. Dan, a very fit and relatively young player (still in
his twenties), will certainly become a threat in the Elite with
some table tennis and badminton practice - he displays a natural
touch in both but more table & court time is required.
Two Scots, Iain Martin and Neil Martin, contested the men's
amateur final, which resulted in victory for Iain Martin, very
good wins in both table tennis and badminton were the key to his
final victory. Neil had a very close semi-final with Niall Munro,
they beat each other comfortably in badminton and squash, but
Neil managed to sneak the advantage in the other two sports to
take him through to the semi-final. Niall Munro then beat Iain
Caddell to take third place. In the ladies amateur, Sue Woods
followed up her gummiarm final defeat in the Class B in Belgium
by taking victory here, beating Clare Woodward in the final. Sue
will now look to perhaps move into the ladies Elite - certainly
her enthusiasm warrants it as she participated in Scotland whilst
husband Ray was travelling back from Canada - they will however
be reunited in the doubles event in London!
Overall this was a fantastic tournament, superbly run by the
'four musketeers' Neil Russell, Simon Ellis, Sarah Mcfadyen &
Katy Buchanan. By their own admissions they were extremely
nervous before the start but it all ran smoothly with only one
hiccup on the Saturday night with the buffet (and that was Next
Generation's fault!). Hopefully they will retain their enthusiasm
to run the event next year - as champion Källberg put it in a
touching speech - "I will definitely be back".
Edinburgh of course has its advantages, it is arguably the second
most attractive city on tour (after Prague), has very good
transport connections and a great nightlife to boot. Both Hans
Mullamaa and Michael Dickert arranged to stay for an extra couple
of nights in order to see all that the Scottish capital has to
offer. Many thanks go also to 'P' & Frania for organising the
pub-crawl (and well done to Niall Munro for sticking to Cola),
and also putting up with an English rabble all weekend! The
success of the Scottish Open can perhaps best be measured by the
amount of players who decided over the weekend to enter the
English Open in two and a half weeks time, many newcomers who
were so impressed by the event in Edinburgh that they want to
play again. We hope to see as many of you at the English Open
(see tournament
homepage) as possible, there has been a very large entry so
far and it promises to be another racketlon spectacle. On behalf
of the Scottish organisational team, thanks to everyone who
participated in Scotland and here's to Edinburgh 2006!
The author. Ray Jordan.
Photo: www.racketlon.co.uk
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Elite results from Edinburgh in summary (for full results, see
the tournament homepage at http://www.racketlon.co.uk/ScottishOpen2005/Home.htm
):
MEN'S ELITE
Semi finals:
Mats Kallberg beat Rickard Persson +4 21-14 15-21 15-21 21-12
Calum Reid beat Michael Dickert +17 20-22 19-21 21-11 16-5
Final:
Kallberg beat Reid +2 21-10 21-12 4-21 19-20
3/4 playoff:
Dickert beat Persson w/o
WOMEN'S ELITE
Semi finals:
Lilian Druve beat Linda Jansson +28 21-15 21-3 21-17
Sarah McFadyen beat Pernille Thomson +33 21-12 21-6 21-12
Final
McFadyen beat Druve +15 22-20 9-21 21-8 21-9
3/4 playoff
Jansson beat Thomson +25 21-11 21-8 23-21
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