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| Sunday, 23 August 2009 00:00 |
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ENGLISH RACKETLON OPEN - RESULTS & REPORT The English Racketlon Open – Redbridge Sports & Leisure - Saturday & Sunday 22nd/22rd August 2009 Michi Dickert and Natalie Lawrence showed their class, but didn't Jermaine Manners and Sarah-Jane Perry provide excellent finals. Dickert clearly benefited from a hard draw, particularly his first round match against British Number Two Keith Lesser who pushed Dickert all the way to erm the squash where he got stuffed lol. Congratulations to international table tennis player Ashley Stokes on a win in Class D in his first tournament, more to follow from Stokes I'm sure. Robin Ashleigh had no idea for the might of Stokes, still angry after his defeat to Russian player Rubenschtein "when was the last time"...... Volker Sach impressed in the vets with a sensational upset against home favourite David Lazarus. The two will no doubt clash again in the future. Sach with his 62 children impressed at the age of 76 and Elise Lazarus could not compete with the cheer from the German crowd. Bergander showed his class in B, although Paul Wallace provided his toughest test and at least the Dane went home with a slight sweat. It will be interesting to see Emil take on the best in the world, would he beat Dickert? No....could he beat some of the other good players, maybe. Would he beat Lesser, definitely not. He probably would have finished 14th in Class B, the gap between A and B is huge! Before I get any complaints THIS IS A JOKE. Emil is a good player and would grace any Class A draw. Good luck to Denmark in Vienna for a Wildcard in Class A, recommended by the English Racketlon Association. The C saw a great run from Racketlon addict Simon Williams. Dinesh Passi showed strong badminton on his way to the final dumping out international table tennis player Eli Baraty in a topsy turvey quarter final battle. But it was a Belgian table tennis player who was victorious, well done, not in mixed doubles though where he got stuffed for 3rd place! Ho Ming Sing Cindy from Hong Kong beat great squash players on the way to the final like Sarah Mackie. Cindy too strong for Dianne Baker in the final. David Jones (son of Alistair) showed great form in taking the U13 singles, watch out for Jones in a couple of years! David beat the first Israeli player Roee Avraham (not at squash though). Avraham is a member of Herzaleah squash club and FIR President Marcel Weigl will no doubt be in touch with Israeli squash penpal David Lazarus about setting up a federation in Israel. Scotland's campaign for Libya to become an FIR member has been turned down for reasons of compassion. Martin Szwaba made an excellent debut defeating former Class A player Alexander Oliver. Szwaba displayed strong squash against the tennis specialist and looks to build on his Redbridge racketlon tournament victories (Lazarus runs monthly tournaments at the centre and Swaba leads the standings thus far). Italy, Austria and England dominated the doubles events. A great result for brother / sister pair Goodhew and Wright in Mixed B. Italian racketlon looks good if Rosso and Bertoldo can build on such a great performance. Schubert & Dickert were unstoppable as were Lawrence & Foulds. Tournament organisers Jordan & Lesser tell the winners to watch out at the World Champs, Jordan/Ison & Lesser/Cook go for medals in 2010, lets see what happens when they have to play and not organise! Not even superman Richard Whitehouse (winner of Over 55 Mens) could stop the Austrian mens doubles winners (Dickert / Schubert). Jordan & Ison got on so well, we may have our first racketlon wedding yet. Gerald's antique stand was a nice touch and Redbridge is arguably the best racketlon facility in the World. The next event is the County Champs, just £10 each, all welcome, support the first county event and help the sport grow on a regional basis, run a team, join a team... Results Summary Mens Elite (A) Michi Dickert Mens Advanced (B) Emil Bergander Mens Amateur (C) Sebastien Vandenabeele Mens Beginner (D) Natalie Lawrence Mens Seniors Over 45 Volker Sach Richard Whitehouse Michi Dickert & Joey Schubert Mixed Elite Doubles (A) Natalie Lawrence & Jon Foulds |