Sherborne School
Saturday/Sunday, 24-25 October 2026
STOP PRESS In the absence of defending Singles champion Dan Tristao, Ed Kay took advantage to continue his extraordinary run of regional Singles titles, once more at the expense of Ben Beltrami. Theo Vernacchio, in the group section, and Giles Munn, in the knock-out, scored notable victories over Lewis Keates, who was possibly not helped by the early morning five-hour train, tube and bus journey from Derbyshire. Archie McCreath scored a well deserved 1st place in the Singles Plate.
With a tweak or two to the Doubles draw, Penn Chai & Terry McElvaney reached the final after a “titanic” (Chris Blakeley) semi-final against Cameron Low & Archie McCreath but understandably had little left to cope with Dan Grant & Ed Kay in the final. Julian Aquilina & Lewis Keates took the Plate.
Organiser Nick Geere reports: In addition to problems caused by the various storms, other hazards were encountered by entrants to this year’s tournament. Penn’s flight from Riyadh took him over Houthi-controlled Yemen, whilst his partner Terry had to make his way by bike on the unlit road from Sherborne to Yeovil (with no designated cycle path).
Despite the absence due to sickness of last year’s Singles winner, Dan Tristao, the quality of entry was very high this year. There were a couple of near upsets in the Singles. Julian Aquilina was (at least) 14-9 up against Dan Grant, before the latter’s serve suddenly became unreturnable. Earlier on Theo Vernacchio nearly suffered the same fate as Andrew Boyd once did in his game against the Organiser, due to the effects of the U25 tournament the previous weekend, which left him barely able to walk; let alone play Fives. However, Theo recovered temporarily to notch up an impressive win against Lewis Keates, before succumbing to Julian, and sadly having to withdraw from the Doubles tournament.
Giles Munn confirmed suspicions that his Singles ranking is not quite up to speed yet, with a comfortable win over Archie McCreath, who in turn won the Plate convincingly; although a very good performance was put in by Benny Harrison – the new coach at Mount Kelly. Meanwhile Giles continued his ranking-enhancing run with a 2-game victory against Lewis, before being stopped in his tracks by Ed Kay.
In the other half of the draw, Cameron Low and Terry McElvaney both put up a good fight against their opponents, losing with identical scores 8-11, 2-11 against Dan Grant and Ben Beltrami respectively. 11-8 turned out to be a popular first game score, with Ben going through to the final after beating Dan 11-1 in their second game.
Next year, if the same format is followed (Round Robin, followed by Knockout rounds – or another Round Robin, in the case of Plate competitors), a President’s Cup-style health warning may be needed – for players unused to 8 games to 15.
At Tamburino’s, the usual birthday celebrations (involving a giant tambourine) had been dispensed with (ironically, as it was Dan Grant’s birthday – or so he said), but the ‘Italian’ waiter made up for this loss with a performance worthy of ‘Allo ‘Allo. However, disappointed at not being eligible for the Plate, Lewis was in no mood for the waiter’s hard sell of the courgette bake (“youa wanta howa maany? 1,2,3 …?”), and replied laconically with “just one please”. Nevertheless our menu choices were usually given a generous verdict of ‘fantastico’ – although this was not thought to be authentic Tuscan dialect by Julian, who assessed the waiter’s town of birth more likely to be Yeovil.
In the Singles final on Sunday morning, Ben faced Ed, who built up an unassailable lead in the first game, with drop shots that were difficult to attack. In the second game, Ed was able to counter Ben’s powerful shots with pressure of his own, whilst somehow taking comparatively little risk with the bar. The final score was 11-8, 11-5 to Ed.
In the Doubles, Dan T and Theo’s absences were resolved by Giles partnering Ben. They lost 13-15 at the group stage to Penn & Terry, who faced the winner of the first marathon match of the Doubles, namely Julian & Lewis versus Cam & Archie, the latter pair winning 11-8, 9-11, 11-3. Spectators then marvelled at the hand-eye coordination of players in the second marathon of the afternoon, in which Penn & Terry managed to beat Cam & Archie 11-12, 11- 5 ,11-7.
Meanwhile in the 2nd half of the draw, Dan & Ed dropped just 6 points against Ben & Giles, before dropping only a further 4 points in the final against Penn & Terry to win the Doubles trophy (currently at the engravers). Julian & Lewis won the Doubles Plate.
Thanks once again to Nick Scorer and Sherborne School for providing excellent facilities (including reliable radiators to forestall any sweating). Thanks also to Chris Blakeley for his help on both days (and the much appreciated use of his hotel shower), and to the various players who kept the RFA Love In up-to-date with scores, videos and other entertainment. (For the avoidance of any doubt though, there were no giraffes playing in the tournament this year.)
Singles
Group A: 1st Ed Kay W4; 2nd Cameron Low W3; 3rd Terry McElvaney W2; 4th Benny Harrison W1; 5th Rupert Mathieu
Group B: 1st Ben Beltrami W4; 2nd Theo Vernacchio W3; 3rd Lewis Keates W2; 4th Jeremy Hughes W1; 5th Nick Geere
Group C: 1st Dan Grant W3; 2nd Julian Aquilina W2; 3rd Giles Munn W1; 4th Archie McCreath
Preliminary Round: Munn bt Keates 11-2, 11-9
Quarter-finals: Kay bt Munn 11-3, 11-1; Aquilina bt Vernacchio 11-0, 11-5; Grant bt Low 11–8, 11-2; Beltrami bt McElvaney 11-8, 11-2
Semi-finals: Kay bt Aquilina 11-0, 11-1; Beltrami bt Grant 11-8, 11-1
Final: Kay bt Beltrami 11-8, 11-5
Plate: 1st McCreath W4; 2nd Hughes W3; 3rd Harrison W2; 4th Mathieu W1; 5th Geere
Doubles
Group A: 1st P Chai & T McElvaney W3; 2nd B Beltrami & G Munn W2; 3rd C Low & A McCreath W1: 4th N Geere & K Kennerley
Group B: 1st D Grant & E Kay W2; 2nd J Aquilina & L Keates W1; 3rd S Brooke & P Grant
Quarter-finals: Low & McCreath bt Aquilina & Keates 11-8, 9-11, 11-3; Beltrami & Munn bt Brooke & Grant 11-2, 11-1
Semi-finals: Chai & McElvaney bt Low & McCreath 11-12, 11-5, 11-7; Grant & Kay bt Beltrami & Munn 11-3, 11-3
Final: Grant & Kay bt Chai & McElvaney 11-2, 11-2
Plate: Aquilina & Keates
Ed Kay beats Ben Beltrami in the Singles final
Archie McCreath wins the Singles Plate
The Doubles finalists Ed, Dan, Terry & Penn
Julian & Lewis win the Doubles Plate
Matching tops!
