The Owers Trophy 2025

Stoke Newington School, London
Sunday, 9th November 2025

Chris Blakeley reports: The Owers Trophy, which was not staged last season, was held this year on the newly renovated courts at Stoke Newington School. The weather stayed dry, and there was general agreement that that the renovation has produced a much more satisfactory playing experience. The newly painted walls are probably a bit lighter than we had intended (the dangers of using a colour palette!) but the experience is similar to playing on the Fettes or Whitgift courts. The format of this Doubles competition is teams of 3 players ranked 1-3 according their Singles ranking (if they have one) and play 3 games to 15 points against their opposite numbers (pairings of 1&2, 1&3 and 2&3).

There were seven teams, divided into two groups: one of 3 teams (Paulines, Derby Moor and Alleyn’s) and one of 4 teams (Fettes, Winchester, Malvern and an International team). It was clear at the start that the very strong Paulines team (Beltrami, Aquilina and Hammond Giles) would take a lot of beating, and so it proved.

In Group A Paulines won all their games against the other two sides, and Derby proved stronger than Alleyn’s, winning two of their three games. In Group B Fettes had a clean sweep against Winchester, and won two out of three games against the International side. The Internationals and Winchester both had a clean sweep against Malvern. By this time, with the semi-finalists decided, Winchester decided to retire, as they had only two players who had therefore played every single game, leaving Alleyn’s and Malvern to compete for the Plate, which was duly won by Alleyn’s.

In the semi-finals, Paulines continued their dominant display in defeating the International side, though the matches were more competitive than the scoreline might suggest. The other semi-final was a much closer affair, with Fettes running out winners by 2 games to 1. The final was also hard fought, but Fettes were unable to break the Paulines’ stranglehold, and Paulines ended up winners having not lost a single game.

Teams

Old Alleyn’s/Edward Alleyn Club: Hamish Buchanan, Ed Carr, Yarin Negyal
Old Derby Moor: Richard Christie, Lewis Keates, Rob Whitehorn
Old Fettesians: Penn Chai, Toby Chan, Archie McCreath and Wyman Chan
Old Malvernians: Andy Passey, xxx Tye, Shinan Zhang
Old Paulines: Julian Aquilina, Ben Beltrami, Freddie Hammond Giles
Old Wykehamists: JP Cheng, Matt Hale
The Internationals: Aitor Arastorza-Fadrique, Ander Iraizoz, Terry McElvaney

Scores

Group A: Old Paulines (Beltrami, Aquilina, Hammond Giles) bt Old Derby Moor (Keates, Whitehorn, Christie) 15-8, 15-5, 15-3, and beat Old Alleyn’s (Negyal, Carr, Buchanan) 15-1, 15-0, 15-1. Old Derby Moor beat Old Alleyn’s 14-15, 15-3, 15-13.
Group B: Old Fettes (Chai, McCreath, T&W Chan) bt International (McElvaney, Iraizoz, Irastorza) 6-15, 15-8, 15-9, bt Old Winchester (M Hale, Cheng) 15-8, 15-4, 15-6, International bt Old Malvern (Zhang, Passey, Tye) 15-6, 15-3, 15-4, Old Winchester bt Old Malvern 15-13, 15-7, 15-8. International played one game against Old Winchester, winning 15-6.

Semi-finals: Paulines bt International 15-6, 15-2, 15-3; Fettes bt Derby Moor 15-6, 14-16, 15-6
Final: Paulines bt Fettes 15-8, 15-4, 15-6
3^rd/4^th play-off: International bt Derby Moor 16-14, 15-8
Plate: Alleyn’s bt Malvern 45-18