Marlborough College
Sunday, 3rd March 2024
STOP PRESS All four finalists in this event for South West schools were from Winchester College. Plum Mannion-Miles beat Theo Munaretto Day in the U16 final; and Anthony Cloke Browne overcame Arthur James-Duff in the U18 final.
Jamie McManus reports: This year saw the third playing of the Colquhoun Trophy tournament in the post-covid era, as players from Blundell’s, Marlborough College, Marlborough Town, Malvern and Winchester came together for an excellent day of Singles. Particular thanks are owed to Tom Kiggell and Marlborough College for being so hospitable, the cooked lunch provided by our hosts being a very significant upgrade on the packed lunch solution.
In total 73 games to 11 or 15 were played across the day by 26 competitors, an average of 5 and half games each, with some very close matches sprucing up the entertainment and keeping the organiser on his toes when it came to scheduling.
In the U16s Luke Wyman got particular value for his entry fee, winning his first-round game 16-14 and his quarter-final 8-11, 11-9, 11-3. Then his court time came to an end in the semi-final where he found Theo Munaretto Day too strong an opponent. However, the star of the show was Plum Mannion-Miles, using a powerful left-hand that took to the final with comfort and helped him overcome Theo 11-6, 11-1 to win the U16 trophy. The first Plate was won by Marlborough’s Bradbury, the 2nd Plate by Vorobev from Winchester.
There were some close match-ups in the U18 competition too: in the first round Will Bishop snuck past Angus Rackham 16-14 while Daniel Brooke edged Charlie Tomlinson-Hodge 15-13. Will Bishop then gave James Kennedy a scare in the next round before James closed things out 6-11, 11-6, 11-3. However, the best match of the day was the semi-final between Arthur James-Duff and James Kennedy, a repeat of the West of England Schools final, with Arthur again emerging victorious but having to work much harder than at Sherborne to get over the line 11-9,11-7. Regrettably this meant that Arthur was somewhat of a spent force, come the final, and Anthony Cloke Browne, whose progress through the other half of the draw had been serene, won the first game 11-0. Arthur raised himself for the second game but, after taking a 7-2 lead, was pegged back gradually and Anthony won that game 11-8 to take the title.
In the 1st Plate for quarter-final losers Marlborough Town’s Bishop won all three of his matches. In the 6-man 2nd Plate Max Wyman got to know the Blundell’s squad very well thanks to the round-robin format. Max was the only player to inflict a defeat on Charlie Tomlinson-Hodge, but when Max lost to Angus Rackham this gave Charlie the chance to take top spot with a win by 5 or more points against Angus. An 11-4 victory to Charlie gave him the required points differential to overtake Max.
Selected scores
U18 Singles
1st round: Aubery (Win) bt Basford (Blun) 15-5; Di Gleria (Marl) bt Tempest (Blun) 15-1; Zhou (Win) bt Wyman (Marl) 15-2; Kennedy (Win) bt Gogel (Blun) 15-1; Bishop (MarlTown) bt Rackham (Blun) 16-14; Brooke (StMRT) bt Tomlinson-Hodge (Blun) 15-13
Quarter-finals: Cloke Browne (Win) bt Aubery 11-0, 11-1; Zhou bt Di Gleria 11-2, 11-5; Kennedy bt Bishop 6-11, 11-6, 11-3; James-Duff (Win) bt Brooke 11-1, 11-2
Semi-finals: Cloke Browne bt Zhou 11-0, 11-1; James-Duff bt Kennedy 11-9, 11-7
Final: Cloke Browne (Win) bt James-Duff (Win) 11-0, 11-8
1st Plate: Bishop (MarlTown)
2nd Plate: Tomlinson-Hodge (Blun)
U16 Singles
1st round: Munaretto Day (Win) bt Jain (Malv) 15-2; Wyman (Marl) bt Vorobev (Win) 16-14; M Wilson (Malv) bt Fergusson (Win) 15-3; Corrie (Marl) bt Wong (Win) 15-8
Quarter-finals: Munaretto Day bt Bradbury (Marl) 11-2, 11-8; Wyman bt Coleman (Win) 8-11, 11-9, 11-3; Mannion-Miles (Win) bt Wilson 11-0, 11-5; Corrie bt S Wilson (Malv) 11-5, 11-4
Semi-finals: Munaretto Day bt Wyman 11-7, 11-4; Mannion-Miles bt Corrie 11-6, 11-1
Final: Mannion-Miles (Win) bt Munaretto Day (Win) 11-5, 11-1
1st Plate: Bradbury (Marl)
2nd Plate: Vorobev (Win)
The four finalists from Winchester College
Action from the day
