Sherborne School
Saturday/Sunday, 6-7 January 2024
STOP PRESS Players from St Paul’s and Winchester dominated the event, taking all four titles between them and featuring almost exclusively in the finals. The two players from St Paul’s who won the U18 Singles and Doubles are in fact U16s, which may be a first, while Winchester’s successful U16 Doubles pairing also played each other in the Singles final. Plates and bowls were keenly contested and the spoils shared rather more widely. Huge thanks to Sherborne School for hosting the championships.
Ian Jackson reports: 56 players from 9 schools, along with the West of England and Marlborough Town clubs, attended these championships and enjoyed much good fives over the weekend. It was especially good to see entries from the two clubs for the first time and from Christ’s Hospital for the first time for a few years. We are very grateful to Sherborne School for hosting the event, especially as a member of Sherborne staff now needs to be at the courts for the whole time. Nick Scorer took on the lion’s share himself and must have called in lots of favours from his colleagues and we are very grateful to each of them.
With Winchester having the top two seeds in the U16 tournament, it was a case of whether anyone could challenge the Winchester dominance this year. Tom Ritchie and Josh Ferro, both from St. Paul’s and seeded 3 and 4, made the semi-finals but were outgunned by the greater accuracy of the Winchester players. In the final Arthur James-Duff looked to have a little more recent match practice than James Kennedy and he won relatively comfortably 11-0, 11-4
While the later rounds were taking place, Sam Roberts organised an excellent Plate competition for the earliest losers and a Bowl for the losers in the next round, both of which were fiercely contested. In the plate Isaac Bradbury from Marlborough won a very tight group A and faced Ethan Xiao from Winchester, who had a rather easier ride in Group B. However, Isaac varied his shots a little better in the final, giving Marlborough a well-deserved winner, 15-10. In the Bowl, last year’s plate winner Zach Goulding from Winchester followed up his plate win from the previous year in defeating Nadim Cortas from St. Paul’s in a close final 15-12.
In the U18s the question was whether Freddie Hammond Giles, winner of the U16 Nationals last year, would be able, when still U16, to step up and beat the players one and two years older than him. Theo Vernacchio from Alleyn’s, playing without an injury for the first time in over a year, looked very strong and his hard-hitting left hand was too much for the top seed JP Cheng from Winchester in their semi-final. In the other half Freddie overcame Jeffrey Chan from Winchester, the same opponent he had beaten in the final of the Nationals. In this final Freddie’s relentless retrieving and controlled power were too much for Theo, and Freddie deservedly took the U18 Singles title 11-2, 11-3.
First round losers contested a plate competition, which required four pools this year. The winners were Angus Rackham from Blundell’s, Sky Richarz from Alleyn’s, Oscar van Huet Lindemann from Christ’s Hospital and Daniel Brooke from the West of England Club. Angus won his semi-final comfortably while Oscar had to work hard to grind down Daniel. The final was a great battle between two hard hitting left handers, with Angus reaching match point first but Oscar van Huet Lindemann finally coming through to win 12-10. The second-round losers contested a very competitive bowl, with Laurie Milner from Alleyn’s and Will Bishop from the Marlborough Town club making the final. It could not have been closer, but Laurie finally closed out an impressive 16-15 win.
On the Sunday most of the games were in the Doubles. With Josh Ferro from St. Paul’s moving up to the Senior doubles, there was a good battle between St. Paul’s 1 and Winchester 2 for the right to challenge Winchester 1 in the final of the U16 doubles. In an epic battle in their semi-final fortunes switched but finally St. Paul’s 1 (Tom Ritchie and Elyas Efthimiou) closed it out in three games to win 11-9, 7-11, 11-5. As expected, Winchester 1 were a little too strong in the final, though St. Paul’s defended well, and Arthur James-Duff and James Kennedy won 11-1, 11-5.
The plate competition was closely contested but in the end St. Paul’s 3 (Cortas and Fezer Brown) edged out both St. Paul’s 2 and Marlborough 1 to win that tournament.
In the Senior Doubles, and especially after the singles, the question was could the St. Paul’s U16 pair overcome the older pairs in the form of the game where strength is more important. In one semi-final Winchester 1 with JP Cheng and Anthony Cloke Browne had a great battle to overcome determined LVI Alleyn’s pair of Alex Dorokhov and Yarin Negyal 11-9, 0-11, 11-2. St. Paul’s 1 got past the hard hitting Alleyn’s 1st pair of Theo Vernacchio and Laurie Milner to win 11-4, 11-6 in probably the match of the tournament. The varied shot selection, and lack of errors from St. Paul’s meant they were too good for a slightly tiring Winchester in the final and Freddie Hammond Giles and Josh Ferro became, so far as we know, the first U16 pair to win the Senior doubles at the West of England Schools. The score was 11-1, 11-5.
The plate competition was in two pools. Sherborne 1 won Pool A easily. Pool B was much closer and finally, although equal on points, Tonbridge 1 came through. Tonbridge started slowly in the final, but the second half of the game was very close, although Sherborne managed to hang onto their early lead, and Alex Upton and Theo Anderson Gannon claimed a title for the home team 15-10.
The schools now look forward to a good term of Fives culminating in the Nationals at the end of March when those playing at the West of England championships will have to take on the players from the rest of country, including the very impressive group coming up through the Edinburgh schools. It was a pleasure running the tournament, and the enthusiasm, desire to improve and decency of all the Fives players never ceases to impress me.
Scores
U18 Singles
1st round: D Brooke (WoE Club) w/o R Beard (Sher); M di Gleria (Marl) bt M Mehta (SPS) 15-10 ; C Greaves (DerbyM) bt J Gogel (Blun) 15-3 ; D Wright (DerbyM) bt G Kwong (Sher) 15-11
2nd round: JP Cheng (WinC) bt F Caton (Ton) 15-0 ; C Thomlinson-Hodge (Blun) bt Brooke 15-12 ; L Milner (All) bt di Gleria 15-9 ; C Lacewing (CH) bt J Tempest (Blun) 15-0 ; T Vernacchio (All) bt Z Mukhayer (CH) 15-4 ; O Wilson (Ton) bt T Anderson Gannon (Sher) 15-12 ; F Batsford (Blun) bt L Taor (SPS) 15-12 ; A Cloke Browne bt S Richarz (All) 15-0 ; J Chan (WinC) bt O McAuliffe (CH) 15-0 ; G Louet (All) bt C Greaves 16-15 ; A Upton (Sher) bt A Rackham (Blun) 15-4 ; Y Negyal (All) bt D Thomas (Ton) 15-0 ; A Dorokhov (All) bt Wright 15-0 ; B Aubury (WinC) bt F Edelman (Ton) 15-1 ; W Bishop (MarlClub) bt O van Huet Lindemann (CH) 15-6 ; F Hammond Giles (SPS) bt J Mitchell (Blun) 15-0
3rd round: Cheng bt Thomlinson-Hodge 15-3 ; Lacewing bt Milner 15-5 ; Vernacchio bt Wilson 15-0 ; Cloke Browne bt Batsford 15-0 ; Chan bt Louet 15-1 ; Negyal bt Upton 15-0 ; Dorokhov bt Aubury 15-1 ; Hammond Giles bt Bishop 15-1
Quarter-finals: Cheng bt Lacewing 11-4, 11-9 ; Vernacchio bt Cloke Browne 11-3, 11-3 ; Chan bt Negyal 11-2, 11-2 ; Hammond Giles bt Dorokhov 11-0, 11-2
Semi-finals: Vernacchio bt Cheng 7-11, 11-1, 11-3 ; Hammond Giles bt Chan 11-2, 11-5
Final: F Hammond Giles (St Paul’s) bt T Vernacchio (Alleyn’s) 11-2, 11-3
Plate: O van Huet Lindemann (Christ’s Hospital) bt A Rackham (Blundell’s) 12-10
Bowl: L Milner (Alleyn’s) bt W Bishop (Marlborough Club) 16-15
U18 Doubles
1st round: Derby Moor bt Christ’s Hospital 2 11-6, 11-8
2nd round: Winchester 1 bt Derby Moor 11-1, 11-3 ; Blundell’s 1 bt Sherborne 1 11-5, 11-4 ; Alleyn’s 2 bt Tonbridge 1 11-0, 11-0 ; Winchester 2 bt St Paul’s 2 11-3, 11-4 ; Alleyn’s 1 bt Tonbridge 2 11-2, 11-5 ; Marlborough 1 bt Blundell’s 2 11-0, 11-0 ; Christ’s Hospital 1 bt Alleyn’s 3 11-6, 11-1 ; St Paul’s 1 bt Blundell’s 3 11-0, 11-1
Quarter-finals: Winchester 1 bt Blundell’s 1 11-2, 11-1 ; Alleyn’s 2 bt Winchester 2 11-2, 11-1 ; Alleyn’s 1 bt Marlborough 1 11-4, 11-2 ; St Paul’s 1 bt Christ’s Hospital 1 11-4, 11-9
Semi-finals: Winchester 1 bt Alleyn’s 2 11-9, 6-11, 11-2 ; St Paul’s 1 bt Alleyn’s 1 11-4, 11-6
Final: St Paul’s 1 (F Hammond Giles & J Ferro) bt Winchester 1 (JP Cheng & A Cloke Browne) 11-1, 11-5
Plate: Sherborne (T Anderson Gannon & A Upton)
U16 Singles
1st round: E Ludgate (SPS) bt T Moesel (Sher) 16-14; W Ashley (Marl) bt V Mizzoni- Schmidt (SPS) 15-13; J Moesel (Sher) bt N Fezer Brown (SPS) 15-11
2nd round: A James-Duff (WinC) bt Ludgate 15-3 ; N Cortas (SPS) bt E Xiao (WinC) 15-11 ; P Mannion-Miles (WinC) bt Ashley 15-3 ; T Ritchie (SPS) bt E Efthimiou (SPS) 15-2 ; J Ferro (SPS) bt J Moesel 15-0 ; Z Goulding (WinC) bt I Bradbury (Marl) 15-13 ; R McGregor (WinC) bt P Monro-Davies (SPS) 15-9 ; J Kennedy (WinC) bt L Ferro (SPS) 15-2
Quarter-finals: James-Duff bt Cortas 11-2, 11-1 ; Ritchie bt Mannion-Miles 11-2, 11-3 ; J Ferro bt Goulding 11-1, 11-4 ; Kennedy bt McGregor 11-1, 11-1
Semi-finals: James-Duff bt Ritchie 11-4, 11-1; Kennedy bt Ferro 12-11, 11-2
Final: A James-Duff (Winchester) bt J Kennedy (Winchester) 11-0, 11-4
Plate: I Bradbury (Marlborough) bt E Xiao (Winchester) 15-10
Bowl: Z Goulding (Winchester) bt N Cortas (St Paul’s) 15-12
U16 Doubles
1st round: St Paul’s 4 bt Marlborough 2 12-11, 11-9 ; St Paul’s 3 bt Marlborough 1 11-1. 11-2
Quarter-finals: Winchester 1 bt St Paul’s 4 11-0, 11-0; Winchester 3 bt St Paul’s 2 11-4, 11-4; Winchester 2 bt St Paul’s 3 8-11, 11-4, 11-1; St Paul’s 1 w/o Sherborne 1
Semi-finals: Winchester 1 bt Winchester 3 11-1, 11-4 ; St Paul’s 1 bt Winchester 2 11-9, 7-11, 11-5
Final: Winchester 1 (A James-Duff & J Kennedy) bt St Paul’s 1 (T Ritchie & E Efthimiou) 11-3, 11-6
Plate: St Paul’s 3 (N Cortas & N Fezer Brown)
St Paul’s win the U18 Singles ….
… and the U18 Doubles
Winchester win the U16 Singles ….
…and the U16 Doubles