IPSWICH Sports Club's third Racketlon Tournament was hailed a great success.The club this year had the extra honour of holding the British Open at its Henley Road base.

IPSWICH Sports Club's third Racketlon Tournament was hailed a great success.

The club this year had the extra honour of holding the British Open at its Henley Road base.

Dave Howell, the club chairman, said he was pleased to support the future of the sport at Ipswich Sports Club.

“What a great opportunity for young and old to test their abilities in a competitive and friendly atmosphere. Ipswich Sports has all the facilities available and I can really see this sport bringing in new blood into the different sports.”

The Men's Open had the World No. 22, Andrew Kim, as the top seed plus the English No. 1 Ray Jordan seeded two.

However, neither of these managed to win the title; Kim lost his first match against English No. 4 Keith Lesser, and although Jordan reached his final, as the seeding suggested he should, the relative newcomer Jermaine Manners proved too strong even for Jordan.

The final started off well for Jordan as he gave Manners a lesson on the table tennis table, winning 21-1. Jordan had stated that if he could get a good start with the table tennis he really fancied his chances.

Manners's fitness shone through in the squash and although Jordan held him to 8-6 at one point, Manners eventually ran out a 21-8 winner.

Badminton is Manners's strength and it was already looking like an uphill struggle for Jordan, after Manners won 21-7. Jordan was left needing to win the tennis by a margin of 21-13 or better. Consequently Manners was left at 13-12 with eight match balls and he took his first chance to claim the title.

Manners, a retired semi-professional football player, has every chance of becoming a force in this sport and there is every chance that Ipswich witnessed the arrival of the next British No. 1.

The Ladies' event saw Ipswich's Jane Cook line-up against another Suffolk girl, Louise Rogers. In the inaugural event, two years ago, Rogers had managed to keep Jane close enough in her two weaker sports, squash and table tennis, so that she simply reeled her in when it came to badminton and tennis.

So when Cook reached the badminton 27 points ahead alarm bells were already ringing for Rogers. At 11-3 for Cook a fatigued Rogers conceded - Cook only needed another five points for the win and Rogers knew that her Ipswich Sports Club tennis first team colleague would always find five points in the last discipline.

In the other events Rhodri Oliver proved himself too good for all-comers in the Under-21s. He was also too strong for Ipswich Sports Club Squash head pro, Martin Levens, on his way to a fourth place in the A event.

Graham Norton got the better of Dave Howell in the Over-45s but Ipswich Sports Club chairman Howell proved too good for the rest in the Over-55s.

Dianne Barker won the Ladies' Over-45s and Dominique Ford won the Ladies' B event. The Men's B was taken by Paul Mantovani and the C by Sanjay Poria.