Val Fikhter & Matt Ord win the Derby Moor Invitation Doubles

Derby Moor Academy, Littleover

Sunday, 28th June 2026

Bob Dolby reports: The Derby Moor Invitation Doubles is no ordinary tournament. It has always been an event organised to give as much closely fought Fives as possible to as many different players of differing abilities as possible in the space of 9 hours or so, testing the players of the greater ability while giving those with lesser experience a chance to learn, while all having fun. The pairing of players, masterminded these days by Lewis Keates, and the creative structuring of the draws, Brian Kirk’s speciality, means that even with games played to 15 points and a typical entry of 20-30 players, there is non-stop good quality Fives, all on just two courts.

This year was no exception and, in some respects, can claim to have been extraordinary. The field contained the 3-time National Women’s Champion, Camille Beattie; the National U13 Singles and Doubles Champion from Berkhamsted School, Oscar Moss; the 2-time National U16 Champion and recent runner-up in the U18 event, Val Fikhter; and the 2-time Masters Doubles Champions, Brian Kirk & Stuart Kirby. The ages ranged over 7 decades, with the youngest ever participants from the City of Durham Club, twins Rufus and Teddy, looking like champions of the future. Matt Ord, who won the tournament with Val Fikhter, did not attend a Fives-playing school and has learned to play as a post-graduate student at Cambridge University with huge encouragement from Emrys Thursfield. There was a Past President of the RFA playing – Julie McIntyre – and the current General Secretary – Chris Blakeley. The players came from Derby, Manchester, Durham, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, Cambridge and Berkhamsted.

What other tournament is structured so that not only is there a main semi-final and final, but also three separate Plate competitions, each geared to produce close matches and sometimes surprises: Who would have expected Alex Goodwin & Chris Woods to beat Camille Beattie & Yarin Negyal (15-13 in Pool 3)? The final between Lewis Keates & Dylan Wright and Val Fikhter & Matt Ord could easily have gone to 3 games, the first two having equally been cliffhangers both. In what other event could Yarin Negyal have managed to pick up medals in both the knock-out competition and one of the Plates – the headline to this report could have been ‘Yarin does the Double’.

In days when we have concerns about the future of our legendary Manchester Y Club we can be much encouraged by the ongoing success of the Derby Moor Club, of the City of Durham Club spearheaded by Tom Wakelam and Julie McIntyre, of Berkhamsted School, where Chris Davey has produced champions in both codes. Lewis was spot on to tweet “A great day of Fives, so nice to see so many new faces! Seeing the quality of the youngsters today fills me with confidence that the game will live on for years to come.”

Results

Pool 1: 1st Lewis Keates & Dylan Wright 30 pts; 2nd Oscar Moss & Tom Wakelam 18 pts; 3rd Craig Willbourne & Callum Yates 10 pts

Pool 2: 1st Val Fikhter & Matt Ord 30 pts; 2nd Zach Winson Yates & Jacob Woods 17 pts; 3rd Chris Blakeley & Julie McIntyre 9 pts

Pool 3: 1st Alex Goodwin & Chris Woods 30 pts: 2nd Camille Beattie & Yarin Negyal 28 pts; 3rd Durham 1 (Rufus & Teddy) 4 pts

Pool 4: 1st Ben Hale & Sarath Prakash 45 pts; 2nd Chris Davey & Harry Hill 43 pts; 3rd Stuart Kirby & Brian Kirk 24 pts; 4th Durham 2 (Ranveer & Sam) 10 pts

Knock-out

Semi-finals: Fikhter & Ord bt Goodwin & Woods 15-10, 16-15; Keates & Wright bt Hale & Prakash 15-10, 16-14

Final: Fikhter & Ord bt Keates & Wright 16-14 15-13

Third Place Play-off: Hale & Negyal bt Goodwin & Woods 15-10, 15-11

1st Plate: Willbourne & Yates

2nd Plate: Beattie & Negyal