Old Paulines retain the Wood Cup

St Paul’s School and Alleyn’s School

Saturday/Sunday, 21-22 March 2026

Stop Press The Old Paulines successfully defended the Wood Cup, winning the final against a weakened Edward Alleyn Club 1st IV with some ease. The Plate was won in a close match by the Edward Alleyn Club 2nd IV, at the expense of a rejigged West of England Club IV.

Tom Maconie reports: Another eventful Wood Cup was played out at St Paul’s and Alleyn’s, with seven clubs vying for what turned out to be a highly polished trophy.

The tournament kicked off with a two-group round-robin on Saturday at St Paul’s. In the four-team Group A, the Old Paulines (OP) showed too much strength and depth for the rest of the field. They finished comfortably at the top of the group, just five points short of a maximum 312. Things were closer between the other three teams (West of England 2, Edward Alleyn Club 2 (EAFC 2), and Executioners). The Executioners played well to secure second place but yielded their place in the Plate Final to EAFC 2, as the team was unavailable to play on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Group B was a much tighter contest. It began with an epic four-hour match between Edward Alleyn Club 1 (EAFC 1) and Wessex. This was a hard-fought encounter with both teams playing excellent fives. Eventually, the depth of EAFC 1 told and they prevailed. The remaining, relatively short matches in Group B saw West of England 1 beat Wessex, before EAFC 1 defeated West of England 1 in a late-finishing, doubles-only encounter to secure a place against the OPs in the final.

Finals day on Sunday saw an even stronger OP side take on EAFC 1. With all four of the OP team ranked in the top 13 nationally, victory was always going to be a tall order for EAFC 1. Despite a fine singles win for Gwydion Wiseman against Julian Aquilina, the OPs won comfortably to retain the Wood Cup for the fourth year in a row. A special mention goes to OP Theo Parker, who recorded a sixth consecutive Wood Cup win—possibly an individual record? Perhaps one for the Fives history buffs to discuss.

The Plate Final was much closer than the main draw, with a hastily rejigged West of England 1 team losing out by just seven points to a solid EAFC 2 side. WoE 1 lost their second pair to illness only two hours before the final, so a very special mention goes to Archie Borthwick and Steve Brooke for stepping in at such short notice. Steve had already completed a nine-mile run before agreeing to play at 10:00 am on Sunday! Hugely impressive.

Overall, it was a great weekend of Fives, despite the usual organisational hurdles (rules, rankings, radiators, and round-robins, to name a few). Many thanks to Hamish Buchanan, Charlie Brooks, and Sam Roberts for helping the tournament run smoothly.

Results

Group A: 1st Old Paulines W3; 2nd Executioners W2; 3rd Edward Alleyn Club 2 W1; 4th West of England 2 W0

Group B: 1st Edward Alleyn Club 1 W2; 2nd West of England 1 W1; 3rd Wessex Club W0

Final: Old Paulines bt Edward Alleyn Club 1 131-38 [Singles 43-15; Doubles 88-23]

Plate: Edward Alleyn Club 2 bt West of England 1/2 80-73 [Singles 25-24; Doubles 55-49]

Teams

Edward Alleyn Club 1: G Wiseman, T Vernacchio, E Carr and I Ackland

Edward Alleyn Club 2: P Harrison, Y Negyal, H Shaw, H Buchanan, Al Goodwin and H Wiseman

Executioners: B Chua, A Pringle, A Hutchinson and K Diggins

Old Paulines: C Brooks, F Hammond Giles, T Parker, J Aquilina and J Ferro

Wessex Club: JP Cheng, G Munn, A James-Duff, R James-Duff and E Hawke

West of England 1: C Low, T Maconie, J Hughes and W Bishop