THE anticipation for the 33rd RAF Careers Weymouth Beach Classic continues to grow.

This week, the final entry list was confirmed for the event taking place from Friday, July 24 to Sunday, July 26 with both men’s and women’s entries looking to be of a particularly high standard.

The men’s competition looks like it could be the strongest ever.

Leading the list of favourites will be the current British team of Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf, who will be playing in their only event in Britain this year.

They recently competed in the Baku European Games and, the week after Weymouth, will be heading to the European Championships in Austria.

They have gone from having a world ranking outside the top 250 to 56th place in just one year.

However, at least two teams will have high hopes of being able to compete with them. Aden Tutton and Kirk Pitman are coming together for this event and are high quality individuals.

Tutton represented Australia in the Olympics and Pitman was a highly-ranked World Tour player when he represented New Zealand.

Robin Miedzybrodski and Taylor Wilson have won the Weymouth Classic on four occasions between them, although this is the first time they have played together.

The two favourites in the women’s event are British London Olympians Zara Pitman and Shauna Miedzybrodski and the current England team of Vicky Palmer and Jess Grimson.

However, these two teams will be pressed hard by the current Scottish duo of Mel Coutts and Lynne Beattie.

The main draw starts at 9am on Saturday July 25 and the finals are at 3pm on Sunday, July 26.

  • Meanwhile, in the Weymouth ‘Go Spike‘ League there were surprise results this week when the two top-ranked sides of Craig Bishop and James Tagart and Ali Mitchell and Stephen Williamson both lost their semi-finals.

That meant a finale between the pair of Carl Neale and Ian Denslow and Rob Semmence and Dom Cosserat.

The climax of the evening was a hard-fought affair in windy and wet conditions and Semmence and Cosserat showed their greater experience to come through 21- 15 winners.

There are just two weeks left of the competition and Craig Bishop is looking in a good position to take the overall ‘King Of the Beach‘ crown but there are at least three other players who could still catch him.