Val Fikhter & Richard Christie win the 21st Derby Invitational Doubles

Derby Moor Academy, Littleover
Sunday, 29th June 2025

Organiser Brian Kirk believes in getting plenty of Fives for your money (not that there’s an entry fee for the Derby Invitational Doubles!), and so it was for the 9 pairs who contested the 21st edition of this unique Club tournament. In the initial Group stage it was two games to eleven, followed by semi-finals best-of-3 to 15, one of which lasted one and a half hours, a final which lasted two hours, and a Plate competition where the five pairs involved played another set of two games to 11 against each other. Somehow or other, though, Oscar & Dan and Hamish & Simon were allowed to get away with not playing a third place play-off. When play finished at 7.30 there were tired legs and bruised hands, but plenty of smiles, some radiant, some rueful.

In the end it was Richard Christie & Val Fikhter who emerged from the same group as Lewis Keates & Dean Ali to contest the final. Their group match had already been a 16-15 win for Richard & Val, so it was no surprise that the final went to three games, the second of which was memorable for involving 10 changes of hand at 15-15 (Oscar was counting!) i.e. 20 rallies, to complete the game and set up a third. Perhaps by this time Lewis and Dean (playing for the first time in 5 years), having had a three-game semi-final also, offered less resistance in the final game as Val demonstrated why he is the outstanding player of his year and Richard belied his years in an extraordinary display of consistency on the right-hand side. First time winners both.

While Court 1 was occupied by the final the Plate was played out next door and saw the home pair of Dylan Wright & Stuart Kirby mix power with subtlety to win all eight of their games.

Thanks as ever to those who came from afar to play, commiserations to those who intended to play but were prevented by circumstance, thanks to Lewis for communications, to Dylan for statistics, to Stuart for catering, and to Brian for putting everyone through the mill with so much fun on such a hot day.

Group Stage

Group A: 1st Oscar McIntyre & Dan Swinbank W3 45 pts; 2nd Simon Beattie & Hamish Buchanan W2 38 pts; 3rd Stuart Kirby & Dylan Wright W1 28 pts; 4th Brian Kirk & Craig Wilbourne 9pts

Group B: 1st Richard Christie & Val Fikhter W4 61 pts; 2nd Dean Ali & Lewis Keates W3 60 pts; 3rd Max Staryk & Jacob Woods W2 36 pts; 4th Zack Winson Yates & Chris Woods W1 33 pts; 5th Chris Blakeley & Burt Cundy 10 pts

Semi-finals: Ali & Keates bt McIntyre & Swinbank 11-15, 15-12, 15-11; Christie & Fikhter bt Beattie & Buchanan 15-8, 15-5
Final: Christie & Fikhter bt Ali & Keates 13-15, 16-15, 15-7

Plate

1st: Kirby & Wright 88 pts; 2nd Winson Yates & C Woods 72 pts; 3rd Staryk & J Woods 65 pts; 4th Blakeley & Cundy 54 pts; 5th Kirk & Wilbourne 35pts