Titles for St Paul’s and Winchester at the West of England Schools Championships

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Sherborne School, Dorset
Saturday/Sunday, 18-19 January 2025

STOP PRESS Players from St Paul’s School and Winchester College dominated this event, winning the four main titles between them. Freddie Hammond Giles successfully defended his U18 Singles title by beating Charlie Lacewing from Christ’s Hospital and then, with partner Josh Ferro, their U18 Doubles title against the Alleyn’s School first pair, Alex Goodwin & Yarin Negyal. In the U16s Nadim Cortas from St Paul’s won the Singles by beating Plum Mannion-Miles from Winchester College, but was then runner-up with partner Alex Ponte to the Winchester pair of Mannion-Miles & Felix Coleman. Other silver and bronze medals were distributed among 6 schools, including Stamford and Derby Moor. It was good to see young contingents from Mount Kelly and Radley as well.

The RFA’s customary warm thanks go to our hosts Sherborne School and to organiser Sam Roberts.

Sam Roberts reports: Players from St Paul’s School and Winchester College dominated this event, winning the four main titles between them. There was a large entry this year – with 31 playing in the U16s and 37 in the U18s.  Great to have so many playing, but it meant a long Saturday, with considerable gaps between matches for some and the need for rally scoring to complete the plates, which was not universally popular! 

In the U18 Singles final, defending champion Freddie Hammond Giles (St Paul’s) faced Charlie Lacewing (Christ’s Hospital), by which time Charlie had recovered his form after losing the first game of his semi-final 11-0 against Anthony Cloke Browne of Winchester.  The final was a wonderful spectacle. In any other year, Charlie would have been a worthy champion, but Freddie’s retrieving was astonishing and his serve often unreturnable.  Anything but a perfect length or dead nick was returned by Freddie with interest, in a high paced match.  Freddie won 11-0, 11-0 – quite possibly the first time any player has closed out a school tournament final without conceding. His team mate Tom Ritchie was the only player to get any points off Freddie in the entire tournament – losing his semi-final 11-0, 11-1.

In the U18 Singles Plate, Jack Chen from Radley, who had been improving all day, faced Rory Jones of Stamford, with Rory winning 11-8.

The U18 Doubles produced several high quality matches in the quarter- and semi-finals, with St Paul’s 2 (Tom Ritchie and Elyas Efthimiou) defeating Winchester 2 (Theo Munaretto-Day and Daniil Vorobev) to set up an intense semi against St Paul’s 1 (Freddie Hammond Giles and Josh Ferro), coming away with 9 hard fought points. In the other semi, Alleyn’s 1 (Alex Goodwin and Yarin Negyal) swept aside Winchester 1 (Arthur James-Duff and James Kennedy) with an impressive display of power, particularly from Alex on the left. In the final, Freddie and Josh were pushed hard by Yarin’s retrieving and Alex’s ability to hit low and hard onto the back wall, but the defending champions came through in two games.  The bronze medal match went to the wire, with Winchester 1 winning 16-14 against St Paul’s 2, who couldn’t quite maintain the level they had found in the semi-final.

The U18 Doubles plate produced some close matches, with Stamford 2 (Rory Jones & Euan Hunter) losing 15-13 in the semi to Alleyn’s 3 (Skye Richarz and Gabriel Louet), only for Winchester 3 (Zach Goulding and Noah Wong) to beat Alleyn’s in the final.

In the U16 Singles, almost half the players were U15 or U14.  The round of 32 was fairly one-sided apart from two matches. U15 Finlay Schelin (Radley) edged past U14 Joey Hammond Giles (St Paul’s) 15-12 by putting a few more into the corners, and U15 Alex Ponte (St Paul’s) couldn’t quite deal with the destructive left hand of U15 Rumi Kohashi-Khan (Alleyn’s), losing 15-13. U14 Bear Robinson from Winchester made an impressive debut, making it to the last eight.  In the semis, Nadim Cortas (St Paul’s) calmly won against a harder hitting but error-prone Felix Coleman (Winchester), and Plum Mannion-Miles (Winchester) used his experience and variety of shots to beat Rumi, who had been softened up by a three-game quarter-final against Michael Zhang (Winchester).  The final was closely fought between the two left-handers, Plum and Nadim. In the end, despite Plum’s power, Nadim was steadier on the right and more clinical with his left, winning in two games. 

The U16 Singles Plate was a straight knockout format, with rally scoring making for some very close matches.  In the final, Fred McAllister (Alleyn’s) made fewer errors and was slightly more accurate than Alex Ponte (St Paul’s), winning 11-9.  They are both U15 so will certainly feature in the main competition next year.

The U16 Doubles featured two U14 pairs from Mount Kelly, getting a taste of tournament fives for the first time.  Thanks go to their Head Master, Guy Ayling, for promoting fives at the school and for bringing the players from Devon.  The quarter-finals produced two three-game epics with some high quality rallies – Winchester 3 (Ludo Carnegie and Michael Zhang) eventually defeated Winchester 2 (Bear Robinson and Casper Wilson) by three points in total, and Alleyn’s 1 (Rumi and Fred) beat St Paul’s 2 (Zen Okada & Ranvir Puri) by four points overall. The top seeds and early favourites were Plum and Felix from Winchester, a hard hitting left/right combo.  In the final against Nadim and Alex from St Paul’s, Winchester were at 10-4 in the first game before St Paul’s cut out the errors, found the side walls and recovered to win 12-10 against an increasingly anxious Winchester. After some wise words from their coaches, Winchester calmly took the second game, before finishing off a tiring St Paul’s. 

In the U16 Doubles Plate, Derby Moor (Max Staryk and Zachary Winson Yates) won their group to face the other group winners St Paul’s 3 (Neev Bansal and Joey Hammond Giles) in the final. The teams were evenly matched all the way, with Zach’s hard hitting finally making the difference for Derby Moor.

The RFA’s customary warm thanks go to Sherborne School for hosting the tournament and to Nick Scorer and the many other Sherborne staff who gave up their weekends to oversee the courts.

U18 Singles

1st round: J Graham (Sher) bt M Gooding (Marl) 15-6; G Louet (WinC) bt R Jones (Stam) 15-11; T Fergusson (WinC) bt S Khurana (All) 16-14; A Djordjevic (Rad) bt L Branney (CHosp) 15-5; N Wong (WinC)  bt W Horton (Sher) 15-7; J Liu (WinC) bt T Moesel (Sher) 15-13
2nd round: F Hammond Giles (StP) bt Graham 15-0; C McNaughton bt L Wyman (Marl) 15-12; M Arie (All) E Efthimiou (StP)  15-2; J Kennedy (WinC) bt J Chen (Rad) 15-3; A James-Duff (WinC) bt Louet 15-1; T Munaretto-Day (WinC) bt I Corrie (Marl) 15-6; Z Goulding (WinC) bt S Richarz (All) 15-1; T Ritchie (StP) bt Fergusson  15-2; A Cloke Browne (WinC) bt Djordjevic 15-7; A Dowling (CHosp) bt J Mitchell (Blun) 15-12; M di Gleria (Marl) bt D Vorobev (WinC) 15-5; Y Negyal (All) bt Wong 15-0; A Goodwin (All) bt T Hudson (CHosp) 15-0; J Ferro (StP) bt J Moesel (Sher) 15-1; C Sharpe (Stam) bt A Shaw (All) 15-4; C Lacewing (CHosp) bt Liu 15-4
3rd round: Hammond Giles bt McNaughton 15-0; Kennedy bt Arie 15-6; James-Duff bt Munaretto-Day 15-1; Ritchie bt Goulding 15-9; Cloke Browne bt Dowling 15-0; Negyal bt di Gleria 15-0; Goodwin bt Ferro 15-13; Lacewing bt Sharpe 15-0
Quarter-finals: Hammond Giles bt Kennedy 11-0, 11-0; Ritchie bt James-Duff  11-9, 11-9; Cloke Browne bt Negyal 11-8, 11-6; Lacewing bt Goodwin 11-5, 11-2
Semi-finals: Hammond Giles bt Ritchie 11-0, 11-1; Lacewing bt Cloke Browne 0–11, 11-1, 11-8
Final: F Hammond Giles (St Paul’s) bt C Lacewing (Christ’s Hospital) 11-0, 11-0

1st Plate: R Jones (Stamford) bt J Chen (Radley) 11-8
2nd Plate: J Liu (Winchester) bt Vorobev (Winchester) 15-1
3rd Plate: M Arie (Alleyn’s) bt T Munaretto-Day (Winchester) 15-7

U18 Doubles

1st round: Stamford 2 bt Sherborne 2 15-11
2nd round: St Paul’s 1 bt Stamford 2 15-0; Alleyn’s 2 bt Sherborne 1 15-8; St Paul’s 2 bt Radley 1 15-1; Winchester 2 bt Christ’s Hospital 2 15-4; Alleyn’s 1 bt Winchester 4 15-3; Christ’s Hospital 1 bt Alleyn’s 3 15-9; Stamford 1 bt Winchester 3 15-4; Winchester 1 bt Alleyn’s 4 15-3
Quarter-finals: St Paul’s 1 bt Alleyn’s 2 11-0, 11-1; St Paul’s 2 bt Winchester 2 11-8, 11-4; Alleyn’s 1 bt Christ’s Hospital 1 11-0, 11-0; Winchester 1 bt Stamford 1 11-3, 11-3
Semi-finals: St Paul’s 1 bt St Paul’s 2 11-4, 11-5; Alleyn’s 1 bt Winchester 1 11-0, 11-5
Final: St Paul’s 1 (J Ferro & F Hammond Giles) bt Alleyn’s 1 (A Goodwin & Y Negyal) 11-1, 11-7
Plate: Winchester 3 (Z Goulding & N Wong) bt Alleyn’s 3 (S Richarz & G Louet) 15-9

U16 Singles

1st round: T Green (All) bt Z Winson Yates (DerM) 15-6; M Staryk (DerM) bt I Baijal (StP) 15-11; B Robinson (WinC) bt F Carian (Rad) 15-1; L Carnegie (WinC) bt F Mason (Rad) 15-0; N Bansal (StP) bt H Koma (Rad) 15-3; M Zhang (WinC) bt A Bhalodia (StP) 15-2; H Fletcher (Marl) bt H Franks (WinC) 15-2; R Kohashi-Khan (All) bt A Ponte (StP) 15-13; F McAllister (All) bt R Fletcher (WinC) 15-8; C Wilson (WinC) bt Z Okada (StP) 15-9; F Schelin (Rad) bt J Hammond Giles (StP) 15-12
2nd round:  N Cortas (StP) bt Green 15-4; Robinson bt Staryk 15-2; Carnegie bt R Puri (StP) 15-5; F Coleman (WinC) bt Bansal 15-0; Zhang bt E Hunter (Stam) 15-9; Kohashi-Khan bt Fletcher 15-6; Wilson bt McAllister 15-10; P Mannion-Miles (WinC) bt Schelin 15-1
Quarter-finals: Cortas bt Robinson 1-2, 11-1; Coleman bt Carnegie 11-2, 11-2; Kohashi-Khan bt Zhang 6-11, 11-3, 11-7; Mannion-Miles bt Wilson 11-3, 11-0
Semi-finals: Cortas bt Coleman 11-6, 11-1; Mannion-Miles bt Kohashi-Khan 11-3, 11-0
Final: N Cortas (St Paul’s) bt P Mannion-Miles (Winchester) 11-6, 11-7
Plate: F McAllister (Alleyn’s) bt A Ponte (St Paul’s) 11-9

U16 Doubles

1st round: St Paul’s 4 bt Mount Kelly 1 15-7; St Paul’s 2 bt Radley 1 15-7; Alleyn’s 1 bt Mount Kelly 2 15-0; Winchester 2 bt Radley 2 15-1; Winchester 3 bt St Paul’s 3 15-10; Winchester 4 bt Derby Moor 1 16-15
Quarter-finals: Winchester 1 bt St Paul’s 4 11-0, 11-0; Alleyn’s 1 bt St Paul’s 2 11-8, 9-11, 11-8; Winchester 3 bt Winchester 2 3-11, 11-2, 11-9; St Paul’s 1 bt Winchester 4 11-2, 11-4
Semi-finals: Winchester 1 bt Alleyn’s 1 11-2, 11-8; St Paul’s 1 bt Winchester 3 11-8, 9-11, 11-4
Final: Winchester 1 (F Coleman & P Mannion-Miles) bt St Paul’s 1 (N Cortas & A Ponte) 10-12, 11-6, 11-0
Plate: Derby Moor (M Staryk & C Winson Yates) bt St Paul’s 3 (N Bansal & J Hammond Giles) 15-13

The two-time U18 Singles champion from St Paul’s School

The U18 Singles finalists from St Paul’s and Christ’s Hospital

The General Secretary awarding trophies

Medal-winning Singles players from St Paul’s and Christ’sHospital

Doubles pairs from St Paul’s

U16 Singles finalists from Winchester and St Paul’s

Proud Plate winner from Stamford, …

…. from Winchester …

… and from Alleyn’s.

A welcome contingent of young players from Tavistock, …

… and Abingdon, …

… and Derby.