Tristao and Beltrami dominant at the West of England Championships

Sherborne School, Dorset
Saturday/Sunday, 25-26 October 2025

STOP PRESS Dan Tristao and Ben Beltrami dominated these championships, contesting the Singles final, which Tristao won in three games, and then partnering to win the Doubles with some ease against the regular pair from the West of England Club, Cameron Low & Archie McCreath, who had won a marathon three-gamer against Penn Chai & Lewis Keates in their semi-final. A small entry, but two lengthy days of hard-fought Fives.

Nick Geere reports: There were just nine competitors in the Singles this year, but this allowed the luxury of a round robin format, followed by a repechage. With three strong players in each of the two groups, this gave players a second bite of the cherry. (In theory, a slow starter who lost all his round robin games 15-0 could still win the tournament.) Nick Whitney almost took advantage of this system, with a very close match against Theo Vernacchio, and Lewis was able to regain his place in the main draw, after a good win against him by Cameron in the round robin.

The top two players in the draw — Dan and Ben — made their way through to the final, as expected, and were joined in the semi-finals on this occasion by Cameron and Penn, the latter having managed to dislodge Lewis at the quarter-final stage.

In the high quality final, the first game score of 11-4 to Dan belied very close play, with Ben targeting the back left-hand nick well. If anything, Ben was hitting the ball even harder in the second game, which he won 11-6. However, with Ben 7-0 up in the third, the scene was set for a legendary comeback by Dan, who outrageously won the next 11 points, due mainly to incredible retrieving rather than any mistakes on Ben’s part.

Eight pairs contested the Doubles, with a round robin format again initially. The semi-finals saw a fiercely contested match between Lewis & Penn and Cameron & Archie, with the latter winning in the third game, and going on to make a good effort against Dan & Ben in the final. In particular, Archie put on an impressive acrobatic display to retrieve some of Ben’s power shots.

The Doubles Plate was won by the rapidly improving Alex Upton together with his partner Rudi Beard.

Thanks as usual to Sherborne for hosting the event and keeping the heating on; and thanks also to all the players for supporting this tournament, as well as to Chris Blakeley for helping throughout the weekend.

Singles

Group A: 1st D Tristao W4 60 pts; 2nd C Low W3 54 pts; 3rd L Keates W2 50 pts; 4th N Whitney W1 26 pts; 5th N Geere 8 pts
Group B: 1st B Beltrami W3 45 p;ts; 2nd P Chai W2 33 pts; 3rd T Vernacchio W1 18 pts; 4th J Hughes 17 pts

1st round: Hughes bt Geere 15-10
2nd round: Keates bt Hughes 11-8, 11-3; Vernacchio bt Whitney 12-10, 3-11, 11-0
3rd round: Chai bt Keates 11-2, 11-8; Low bt Vernacchio 11-2, 11-4
Semi-finals: Tristao bt Chai 11-5, 11-2, Beltrami bt Low 11-5, 11-0
Final: Tristao bt Beltrami 11-4, 6-11, 11-7

Plate: not contested

Doubles

Group A: 1st B Beltrami & D Tristao W3 45 pts; 2nd C Low & A McCreath W2 40 pts; 3rd S Brooke & K Kennerley W1 23 pts; 4th N Geere & A Landon 13 pts
Group B: 1st P Chai & L Keates W3 45 pts; 2nd J Hughes & T Vernacchio W2 36 pts; 3rd R Beard & A Upton W1 26 pts; 4th P Grant & R Mason 19 pts

Semi-finals: Beltrami & Tristao bt Hughes & Vernacchio 11-3, 11-3; Low & McCreath bt Chai & Keates 11-8, 10-12, 11-9
Final: Beltrami & Tristao bt Low & McCreath 11-2, 11-3

Plate: Beard & Upton bt Brooke & Kennerley 15-5