U25s - Forever Young

U25s - Forever Young

28/09/22: The 2022 Under 25s took place at Harrow on Sunday, with a third consecutive win for Noah Caplin & Hugo Young in the men's competition and a first triunph for Freya Butler & Jessye Tu in the women's tournament.

This year's entry - notwithstanding the change of venue - was a particularly healthy one, with 18 pairs entered in the men's competition and five in the women's, with a large number of the top players in this age group taking part.

The big surprise in the women's tournament was the absence of four times champion Marjolaine Briscoe, who in a bizarre series of circumstances had been left without a partner. With seven time champion Phoebe Bracken also absent, the way was clear for at least one new name on the trophy, although last year's winner Carolina Valensise was back to defend her title. Another point of note was that with the exception of Windsor & Eton/Holyport pair Darcy Clarke & Sophie Wisa, all of the pairs were either recent, current or about to be current players at Oxford & Cambridge, a good indicator of the terrific job these two clubs do for women's Fives but also a reflection of the work to be done elsewhere in keeping female Fives-playing school leavers involved in the game, both at the elite and more social ends of the playing spectrum.

The five pairs involved played each other in a round robin format, with each match played over two matches to twelve points. The two most experienced pairs - U21 champions Freya Butler & Jessye Tu and sisters Carolina & Lorenza Valensise - were too strong for the other pairs as expected. What wasn't immediately obvious from the scorelines, however, was the standard of play being produced by the other three pairs: Sophie & Darcy, ex-Oxford pair Sophie Clifford-King & Grace Day and current Cambridge pair Leah Hurst & Alex Davies. All three showed plenty of talent and determination and more court time and match and tournament exposure are all that is needed for them all to be challenging at the top end of the women's game in due course. The closest match of the day was the final round encounter between Grace & Sophie C-K and Darcy & Sophie W, which was effectively a 3rd/4th place play-off. The first game was won by Grace & Sophie 12-10 and they had a match point in the second game before losing it 11-14. Both pairs seemed happier to take the draw and share third place rather than head back on court at the end of a long day for yet another game!

Meanwhile, the final was taking place on the court next door and the two game round robin format had been amended to a best of three shootout for the match between the two undefeated pairs. Expectations were high that this might be a nip and tuck classic. In fact it turned out to be surprisingly one-sided, with Caro & Lorenza unable to find a way past the sharp movement and quick aggressive top step volleying of Freya & Jessye. With a strong set piece game to back up the attacking rally play, the Oxford/Cambridge pairing dominated proceedings from start to finish, winning 12-5, 12-3 to claim the title in fine style.

The men's tournament started with the pairs divided into four groups to determine the eight qualifiers for the quarter-finals. The top two pairs in each of the four groups all qualified with relative ease, with none of the third placed pairs able to get closer than the 12-6 managed by Ethan Smith & Aaditya Deshmukh against Nick Choustikov & Can Koksal in Group D. The group decider in Group D was also the closest one across the groups, with Nick & Can closing the gap towards the end against Will Sissons & Tom Cotterell but ultimately losing 12-8. There was another high standard final game in Group B as Charlie Nicholls & Sahil Shah put in an excellent performance to hold off the considerable threat posed by Gwydion Wiseman & Prajeeth Sathiyamoorthy with a 15-9 win. Defending champions Hugo Young & Noah Caplin cruised through in Group A, joined in the last eight by scratch pairing Hal Gibson-Leitao & Fred Prickett and it was a straightforward qualification in Group C for Old Olavians Tom Gallagher & Morgan Pugh ahead of current Olavians Genesis Nsenga & Franklin Baron.

It was great to have three Harrow pairs join in the morning's matches, but house football called in the afternoon, leaving seven pairs to contest the plate. Ethan & Aaditya cleaned up in Group X ahead of Tom Xu & Freddie Kottler and Phil Wilkinson & Rory Buchanan and looked set for a final match up against Millhillians Lukas Vanhaesebroeck & Ben Balcombe; indeed Freddie & Tom had played the first couple of points against the expected runners-up from Group Y, Will Seath & Ollie Avery, when word came through of a dramatic about turn in the final group match, with Lukas & Ben losing to ex QEB pair Abilash Sivathasan & Avinash Kumararuban, creating a three way tie and catapulting Will & Ollie out of the plate B final and into the Plate A final. Ethan & Aaditya proved too strong for Will & Ollie in that final with a 15-8 win, while the newly restarted Plate B final produced one of the games of the day as Cambridge's Tom Xu & Freddie Kottler overturned a morning group stage defeat at the hands of a stunned Lukas & Ben with a 15-13 victory.

The quarter-finals of the main tournament saw the top eight pairs battling it out for the four semi-final places; the quality was as high as it can ever been at this stage of this competition but still the close classic match remained elusive: Noah & Hugo continued to look in complete control (well so far as Noah ever looks in control of anything) with a convincing win over Genesis & Franklin, whose time will come in this tournament; Can & Nick had no answer to the firepower of Charlie & Sahil; Fred & Hal played some eye-catching Fives but went down 15-7 to Tom & Morgan but the most eye-catching performance of the round came from the Old Rydalian pairing of Tom Cotterell & Will Sissons, who produced a barnstorming attacking performance to blow away the dangerous pairing of Gwydion & Prajeeth 15-4. Will has pedigree, of course, as a winner of the Schools Championships when at Shrewsbury and last year's Midlands tournament champion among other honours, but he doesn't get on court all that often. His partner Tom Cotterell's appearances are even fewer and further between but this win was evidence of his talent and it is very much to be hoped that both Will & Tom will manage to get on court as much as possible over the course of the next few years.

Having come through a tough quarter-final with flying colours, Tom & Will's next assignment was even tougher - taking on Kinnaird Cup semi-finalists and defending champions Hugo & Noah. They gave it a pretty good go, but it was asking a lot for them to be able to put the top seeds under too much pressure and Hugo & Noah duly booked their place in the final with a 2-0 win. It was the other semi-final that finally gave the tournament the thriller that it had been lacking to that point as Tom Gallagher (a winner of this tournament back in 2016 while still at school) & Morgan Pugh took on Charlie Nicholls & Sahil Shah. Charlie & Sahil started better, cutting more effectively and making fewer mistakes around the court, with Morgan in particular looking as though he was tiring a bit and they took the first game 12-7 in fairly regulation fashion. The second game was a different story, however, with Morgan finding a second wind and both Olavians improving their cutting and tidying up their rally play to get themselves right back in the contest, which they levelled at 1-1 with a 13-10 win. When they went 5-0 up in the third it looked as though their momentum might be unstoppable, but Charlie & Sahil managed to recover just in time and began to get themselves back into what was now a very even contest. Tom & Morgan still had the advantage on the scoreboard, however, and got to 9-6 ahead before the final twist, as Charlie & Sahil finally got back on top in the nick of time, producing a series of crucial cut returns as their opponents finally began to run out of steam with the finshing line in sight. 12-9 to Charlie & Sahil then and a 2-1 win in a memorable match.

The final was less thrilling, as it was less close, but no less admirable and enjoyable to watch for that. The quality of play was very high, and Charlie & Sahil did a great job in maintaining their form and their energy levels after their lengthy semi-final. The simple truth, however, is that Hugo & Noah are a significant distance ahead of the competition in this age group and they dominated the final in much the same way as they had dominated the rest of the day, their cut returning creating chance after chance and their volleying speed and accuracy into the buttress converting chances into points. This was their third consecutive win in this competition as a pair and Hugo's fourth overall. Noah will no longer be eligible for the U25s next season so this will be their last win as a pair, but Hugo still has power to add and it will be interesting to see who he plays with next year.

Our thanks go to Ian Hutchinson and Lukas Vanhaesebroeck at Harrow for hosting the tournament, to Advanta Wealth for their continued sponsorship and to all those who came and played and helped get the competitive season off to a flying start.

Men's Tournament

Quarter-Finals

H.Young & N.Caplin beat F.Baron & G.Nsenga 15-2

W.Sissons & T.Cotterell beat G.Wiseman & P.Sathiyamoorthy 15-4

T.Gallagher & M.Pugh beat F.Prickett & H.Gibson-Leitao 15-7

C.Nicholls & S.Shah beat C.Koksal & N.Choustikov 15-3

Semi-Finals

H.Young & N.Caplin beat W.Sissons & T.Cotterell 2-0 (12-3, 12-3)

C.Nicholls & S.Shah beat T.Gallagher & M.Pugh 2-1 (12-7, 10-13, 12-9)

Final

H.Young & N.Caplin beat C.Nicholls & S.Shah 2-0 (12-4, 12-5)

Plate A