History made at the Men’s U25 Championships

St Paul’s School, Barnes

Saturday/Sunday, 17-18 October 2026

Bob Dolby reports: A large entry of 25 for the Singles, with a few last minute tweaks, provided for a 1st and a 2nd round with particularly encouraging performances from some of the young entries. The stand-out match in the quarter-finals was Stuart Scott’s 3-game victory over Patrick Harrison. The semi-finals featured three members of the Edward Alleyn Club, all products of Alleyn’s School, and one Old Blue, i.e. formerly of Christ’s Hospital. In the enforced absence of the previous champion Freddie Hammond Giles, the two top-seeded players — Gwydion Wiseman and Charlie Lacewing — met in the final on Sunday morning. The match went to three games, with Charlie covering an extraordinary number of kilometres in the process of his resistance to Gwydion’s constant pressure. The end-of-match applause was hugely merited by both players — they could not have given more.

The organiser opted for a fifteen-man round robin for the Plate, with four semi-finalists emerging from the three groups. The upshot was a little piece of history: the youngest player, U16 Joey Hammond Giles from St Paul’s, met the oldest player, Seb Fraser, in the final — and won the Plate, surely by far the youngest to have done so in the 41 years of this Championship.

The Doubles was yet to produce a major piece of history on the Sunday. Ten pairs contested the title, three of them schoolboys from Alleyn’s, Derby Moor and Radley. The stand-out contest of the quarter-finals was the clash of Cheng & Lacewing with reunited Fraser & Wu, won by the latter, who then went on to give a further good account of themselves in their semi-final defeat by Harrison & Vernacchio. Meanwhile the brothers Hammond Giles provided the first major surprise by beating Wiseman & Scott, in straight games, in the other semi-final.

If the morning’s Singles final had delivered superlative Fives, the afternoon’s Doubles final was quite extraordinary in its quality and its drama. The scores in this three-gamer tell some of the story. By the time Harrison & Vernacchio had wrestled their way to 9-8 in the third it looked as if the ex-Alleyn’s pair were in for a first title together, but then two chances were lost of opening up a 3-point lead. Brothers Freddie and Joey found new energy, forced some expensive errors from Patrick and from Theo, and made yet more history [subject to confirmation from the experts!] by becoming the first pair of brothers in the recorded history of tournament Fives to win a National, or indeed any, Doubles title, with the added dimension of Joey’s uniquely young age.

While all this drama played out, five pairs contested a Plate competition run by the General Secretary, which culminated in a decisive match between George Crawley & Adam Hutchinson and Charlie Lacewing & JP Cheng. The latter pair won that decider 15-14, and with it a memorable weekend came to an end.

Results

Singles

1st round: Rufus Taylor bt Sean Jaffe 15-9; James Milburn bt Finlay Schelin 15-0; Hajime Koma w/o Jack Pyman; Joey Hammond Giles bt Max Staryk 15-2; Theo Munaretto Day bt Sam Negyal 15-3; Adam Hutchinson bt Kyler Foo 15-1; Leo Bauer w/o Zach Goulding; Oscar Zhou bt Keshav Kedia 15-7; Sebastian Fraser bt Noah Thomas 15-1.

2nd round: Gwydion Wiseman bt Taylor 15-1; Milburn bt Koma 15-0; Patrick Harrison bt Joey Hammond Giles 15-3; Stuart Scott bt Munaretto Day 15-8; Hutchinson bt Zach Winson Yates 15-6; Theo Vernacchio bt Bauer 15-5; JP Cheng bt Zhou 15-2; Charlie Lacewing bt Seb Fraser 15-2.

Quarter-finals: Wiseman bt Milburn 15-7, 15-3; Scott bt Harrison 15-7, 15-16, 15-13; Vernacchio bt Hutchinson 15-3, 15-5; Lacewing bt Cheng 15-0, 15-3.

Semi-finals: Wiseman bt Scott 15-10, 15-5; Lacewing bt Vernacchio 15-7, 15-8.

Final: Gwydion Wiseman bt Charlie Lacewing 15-9, 12-15, 15-4.

Singles Plate

Group A: 1st Joey Hammond Giles W4; 2nd Noah Thomas W3; 3rd Sean Jaffe W2; 4th Max Staryk W1; 5th Keshav Kedia.

Group B: 1st Seb Fraser W 4; 2nd Sam Negyal W3; 3rd Finlay Schelin W2; 4th Oscar Zhou W1; 5th Kyler Foo.

Group C: 1st Theo Munaretto Day W4; 2nd Hajime Koma W3; 3rd Zach Winson Yates W1 31pts; 4th Rufus Taylor W2 28pts; 5th Leo Bauer.

Semi-finals: Fraser bt Munaretto Day 15-8; Hammond Giles bt Negyal 15-9.

Final: Joey Hammond Giles bt Seb Fraser 15-8.

Doubles

1st round: Ben Aubury & Ricky Zhou bt Hajime Koma & Finlay Schelin 15-4, 15-7; George Crawley & Adam Hutchinson bt Sam Negyal & Rufus Taylor 15-10, 11-15, 15-10.

Quarter-finals: Stuart Scott & Gwydion Wiseman w/o Aubury & Zhou; F Hammond Giles & J Hammond Giles bt Max Staryk & Zach Winson Yates 15-3, 15-8; Seb Fraser & Shiloh Wu bt JP Cheng & Charlie Lacewing 16-14, 15-5; Patrick Harrison & Theo Vernacchio bt Crawley & Hutchinson 15-2, 15-0.

Semi-finals: Hammond Giles & Hammond Giles bt Scott & Wiseman 15-3, 15-9; Harrison & Vernacchio bt Fraser & Wu 15-4, 15-7.

Final: Freddie Hammond Giles & Joey Hammond Giles bt Patrick Harrison & Theo Vernacchio 13-15, 15-6, 15-12.

Doubles Plate Round Robin: 1st Cheng & Lacewing 60pts; 2nd Crawley & Hutchinson 56 pts; 3rd Staryk & Winson Yates W2 41pts; 4th Hajime & Schelin W1 41pts; 5th Negyal & Taylor 23 pts.