Christ’s Hospital, Horsham
Saturday, 16th August 2025
Stop Press Ed Kay wins his 5th SE Singles title; Rupert Mathieu wins his 2nd SE Doubles title; and Emrys Thursfield wins his 2nd Challenger Singles title.
Ed Hatton reports: A dedicated group of some regular and some new competitors gathered at Christ’s Hospital to contest the EJP Hatton claret jug and the Christ’s Hospital Cup.
In the Singles group stages Ed Kay and Penn Chai proved their accuracy, mettle and energy conservation abilities with smooth progress and very few points dropped. Charlie Lacewing made similarly secure progress to the semis – harder fought was Theo Vernacchio’s progress with impressive and narrow wins.
Penn and Ed made comfortable progress to the final despite the valiant efforts of their opponents. It was there that Penn really pushed on the accelerator and in the first game made every point count. Ed’s accuracy eventually squeezed this one out 11-7, with a more comfortable win in the second game. He thus becomes the first man to defend the Singles title twice in a row.
A very tight Challenger tournament was then held. Despite some queries as to the organiser’s insistence that points scored would be the primary determiner, Emrys Thursfield deservedly edged out the win on both games and on points scored, despite tough competition from Ed Carr and John Keyes.
The Doubles was the now traditional giant round-robin – the fairest and most satisfying way to adjudicate! Games were played to 11 so as to manage encroaching fatigue, and the arrival of Helena Tunks, Tim Hebblethwaite, Savanna Leboff and Rupert Mathieu over the horizon brought a welcome infusion of energy. Again the priority was on points scored but this also ended up correlating with games won. Particular highlights were the indefatigable energy and accuracy of Mathieu, some very well contested matches between, for example, Lacewing & Ord and Vernacchio & Leboff and the former versus Tunks and Hebblethwaite. Chai & Mathieu took a very solid and deserved gold medal, with Carr & Keyes and Thursfield & Hatton fighting hard for silver and bronze respectively.
Singles
Group A: 1st E Kay 45 pts; 2nd T Vernacchio 31 pts; 3rd E Thursfield 29 pts; 4th E Carr 17 pts
Group B: 1st P Chai 45 pts; 2nd C Lacewing 31 pts; 3rd J Keyes 21 pts; 4th M Ord 3 pts
Semi-finals: Chai bt Vernacchio 11-1, 11-4; Kay bt Lacewing 11-0, 11-2
Final: Kay bt Chai 11-7, 11-2
Challenger: 1st E Thursfield 33 pts; 2nd E Carr 30 pts; 3rd J Keyes 29 pts; 4th M Ord 13 pts
Doubles
Round Robin: 1st P Chai & R Mathieu 55 pts; 2nd bt E Carr & J Keyes 49 pts; 3rd E Hatton & E Thursfield 43 pts; 4th T Hebblethwaite & H Tunks 37 pts; 5th C Lacewing & M Ord 28 pts; 6th S Leboff & T Vernacchio 25 pts
Where it is!
Ed Kay wins the Singles for the 5th time
Challenger victor Emrys Thursfield with organiser Ed Hatton
Doubles winners Rupert Mathieu & Penn Chai
Runners-up Ed Carr & John Keyes