West of England Schools Championships
Sherborne School, Dorset
Saturday/Sunday, 8-9 January 2022
STOP PRESS Three titles for Alleyn’s School and one for Winchester College, the two dominant squads at this year’s Championships.
Sam Roberts reports: After an uncertain few weeks over Christmas and the New Year, waiting to see whether new covid restrictions would be announced which would prevent the tournament taking place, or whether so many players and supervising staff would be forced to isolate that no meaningful competition was possible, it was a wonderful thing to stage the Schools West of England Fives Championships, and to feel that perhaps fives was back to normal, two years since the last event. We are extremely grateful to Sherborne School for hosting the tournament.
In the end, covid, other school sports fixtures and revision for GCSE assessments took their toll on the entries. Blundell’s were forced to withdraw all their players because a key member of staff was isolating, and the U16s were reduced to 15 players in the Singles.
Despite all these issues, it was a weekend of excellent fives, played in front of enthusiastic (masked …) supporters.
In the U16 Singles, things went according to seeding – apart from a fantastic run by Fintan Delaney of St Paul’s, who swept aside fourth seed Laurie Milner of Alleyn’s in the quarter-final and nearly took out the top seed, Anthony Cloke Browne of Winchester, in the semi-final, with Anthony scraping through 11-9 in the third game. In the final, Theo Vernacchio of Alleyn’s kept his composure to win a mammoth tussle in the first game and then achieved victory in a shorter second game, against an understandably tired Cloke Browne.
In the U16 Doubles, the draw was strengthened by two pairs from Stamford who made a seven hour round trip on the Sunday in order to play. Despite their long journey, Stamford first pair of Chase Burgess & Cam Drutman cruised past Tonbridge to reach the semi-final – both being U15 pairs who should return stronger next year. In the semi-final, Winchester 1 (Cloke Browne & Jeffrey Chan) were a little too consistent and hard hitting for Stamford, and in the other half of the draw, Alleyn’s (Milner & Vernacchio) defeated the Sherborne pair of Alex Upton & Charlie Money with some well organised and effective play. The final was hard fought and intense – Winchester unsettling Alleyn’s to take the first game easily, before Alleyn’s regained their composure, cut down on the errors and won the match in three games.
In the Open Singles, the semi-finals involved two match-ups between Alleyn’s & Winchester – Gwydion Wiseman against Marcus Cloke Browne, and Stuart Scott against Shiloh Wu – but only after Cloke Browne had come through a fantastic three-gamer against Aiden Whitham of St Paul’s, and Scott had weathered a brilliant passage of play from Genesis Nsenga of St Olave’s, who took the match to three games. In the semi-finals, Wu’s superior accuracy and low hitting was too much for Scott, and Wiseman’s speed and variation eventually prevailed against Cloke Browne, who nevertheless made the top seed work hard for his win. The final produced a memorable display of high quality, relentless fives. In the first game, Wu and Wiseman were evenly matched, each taking it in turns to hit the perfect length or a clean nick. Wiseman closed out the game, partly thanks to some unreturnable serves, and then held his nerve in the second, showing great self-discipline and focus to slowly drag Wu out of position in the long, draining rallies, before playing his winners. Despite it only going to two games, it was one of the highest quality, most evenly matched finals for years.
In the Open Doubles, the early rounds were fairly one sided – apart from Tonbridge 1 (Neil Hudson & Max Freudenheim) rallying to nearly take St Paul’s 2 (Alex Ridley & Benny Harrison) to a third game decider, and St Paul’s 1 (Aiden Whitham & Ben Roberts) being forced to claw their way back from 10-3 down to win the second game and close out the match against the scratch ‘Edward Alleyn Club’ pairing of Genesis Nsenga & Jake Johnston. The semi-finals were wonderfully intense affairs, with long rallies and superb retrieving, as the two St Paul’s pairs each came close to taking their matches to a third game. In the final, Winchester (Cloke Browne & Wu) played consistent, powerful fives in the first game, establishing an early lead and only conceding two points to Alleyn’s (Wiseman & Scott). A similar fast start in the second game took them into a commanding 6-1 lead. With their backs to the wall, the Alleyn’s pair found new aggression and commitment and they stormed through to take the game. In the third game, Alleyn’s gained an early lead but Winchester were still playing excellent fives and they gradually pulled level, and then moved clear to take the deciding game 11-7. It was a classic final, and a fitting way to end the tournament.
Results
Open Singles
1st round: H Akerman (Win) bt K Lee (Ton) 15-2; B Harrison (StP) bt J Johnston (All) 15-1; N Hudson (Ton) bt C Yates (Der) 15-3; A Whitham (StP) bt O Wallace-Vorberg (All) 15-2; H Shaw (All) bt J Pyman (She) 15-4; A Todd-Leask (Mar) bt G Slater (Ton) 15-2; F Mercer (She) bt A Huang (Ton) 15-4; G Nsenga (StO) bt M Bolt (All) 15-7; A Ridley (StP) bt M Fowle (She) 15-5; B Roberts (StP) bt A Murat (Ton) 15-4; M Freudenheim (Ton) bt B Cundy (Der) 15-0; P Harrison (All) bt W Fahle (She) 15-3
2nd round: G Wiseman (All) bt Akerman 11-0, 11-0; B Harrison bt Hudson 11-4, 11-9; Whitham bt Shaw 11-1, 11-3; M Cloke Browne (Win) bt Todd-Leask 11-0, 11-1; S Scott (All) bt Mercer 11-0, 11-0; Nsenga bt Ridley 11-6, 11-9; Roberts bt Freudenheim 11-3, 11-4; S Wu (Win) bt P Harrison 11-5, 11-1
Quarter-finals: Wiseman bt B Harrison 11-0, 11-5; Cloke Browne bt Whitham 11-4, 3-11, 11-8; Scott bt Nsenga 11-5, 8-11, 11-3; Wu bt Roberts 11-2, 11-5
Semi-finals: Wiseman bt Cloke Browne 11-3, 11-7; Wu bt Scott 11-3, 11-5
Final: G Wiseman (All) bt S Wu (Win) 11-9, 11-6
Plate: A Ridley (StP) bt H Akerman (Win) 15-4
Open Doubles
1st round: Tonbridge II bt Derby Moor 15-8; Tonbridge I bt Alleyn’s II 15-5; St Paul’s II bt Tonbridge III 15-0; St Paul’s I bye; Edward Alleyn bt Malborough I 15-2; Alleyn’s III bt Marlborough II 11-5
Quarter-finals: Alleyn’s I bt Tonbridge II 11-0, 11-0; St Paul’s II bt Tonbridge I 11-5, 12-11; St Paul’s I bt Edward Alleyn 11-6, 12-11; Winchester bt Alleyn’s III 11-0, 11-3
Semi-finals: Alleyn’s I bt St Paul’s II 11-9, 11-5; Winchester bt St Paul’s I 11-3, 11-8
Final: Winchester (M Cloke Browne & S Wu) bt Alleyn’s I (S Scott & G Wiseman) 11-2, 9-11, 11-7
Plate: 1st Marlborough I (A Todd-Leask & A Kiggell); 2nd Alleyn’s II (P Harrison & H Shaw)
U16 Singles
1st round: M Di Gleria (Mar) bt O Woolf (Ton) 15-6; F Delaney (StP) bt A Kulkarni 15-2; L Milner (All) bt R Goodman (StP) 15-4; T Vernacchio (All) bt A James-Duff (Win) 15-3; J Kennedy (Win) bt A Upton (She) 15-10; R Zhou (Win) bt O Wilson (Ton) 15-8; J Chan (Win) bt C Money (She) 15-9
Quarter-finals: A Cloke Browne (Win) bt Di Gleria 11-5, 11-1; Delaney bt Milner 11-8, 11-5; Vernacchio bt Kennedy 11-7, 11-6; Chan bt Zhou 11-0, 11-0
Semi-finals: Cloke Browne bt Delaney 8-11, 11-4, 11-9; Vernacchio bt Chan 11-2, 11-2
Final: T Vernacchio (All) bt A Cloke Browne (Win) 11-9, 11-5
Plate: A Upton (She) bt R Goodman (StP) 15-13
U16 Doubles
1st round: Sherborne bt Stamford II 15-0; Tonbridge bt Marlborough II 15-7
Quarter-finals: Alleyn’s I bt Winchester III 11-5, 11-0; Sherborne bt Winchester II 11-4, 11-4; Winchester I bt Marlborough I 11-7, 11-6; Stamford I bt Tonbridge 11-0, 11-2
Semi-finals: Alleyn’s I bt Sherborne 11-0, 11-6; Winchester I bt Stamford I 11-6, 11-4
Final: Alleyn’s I (L Milner & T Vernacchio) bt Winchester I (A Cloke Browne & J Chan) 2-11, 11-4, 11-6
Plate: 1st Winchester III (A James-Duff & J Kennedy); 2nd Winchester II (A Kulkarni & R Zhuo)
Alleyn’s National Champion adds to his titles
First Winchester Fives, now Rugby Fives Champions
Three trophies for Alleyn’s School
Silvers and Golds for Winchester College
Plate medals for Marlborough U18s