Wet Weather Doesn't Rain On Dunbar & Cooley's Northern Parade
10/02/26: Seb Cooley & Tom Dunbar retained the Northern Tournament title in association with Advanta Wealth at Shrewsbury at the weekend with a hardfought four game win over Riki Houlden & Hugo Young.
Another strong entry of 60 pairs took to the courts at Shrewsbury for this year's Northern Tournament, as always split between the Main and the Festival competitions. A combination of an overnight temperature rise, persistent rain and a complete lack of traditional "Shrewsbury in February" cold wind meant that a bit of remedial work was in order to get the courts ready and Andy Barnard and his team of willing(ish) volunteers did sterling work with the sawdust bucket to keep the courts just about playable for the duration of the day. It is also greatly to the credit of the players that they generally just got on with things uncomplainingly despite the sometimes less than perfect conditions and the full Saturday programme managed to get completed.
Saturday's play in the main tournament started with five groups of five or six pairs fighting it out for a top two placing, which would see them into either the quarter-finals directly or a couple of play-off matches to reduce ten pairs to eight. There were some terrific matches across the board and an extremely high standard of play, but only one result that could really be classed an an upset, seventh-seeded Salopians Ed Taylor & Henry Blofield getting off to a flyer against fourth-seeded James Toop & Gwydion Wiseman and holding off the inevitable fightback to top their group and send their opponents into the play-offs.
Toop & Wiseman recovered well from that setback, defeating 2025 Schools' winners Aadi Agarwal & Tanish Arjaria convincingly to take their place in the quarter-finals, where they were joined by Salopians Tom Cox & Rex Worth, making a welcome return to the major tournament scene and coming from behind to defeat Alex Abrahams & Sahil Shah 15-11. The top eight seeds therefore progressed to the last eight (if not necessarily in the prescribed order), which took place in the worst weather conditions of the day, the rain hammering down on the small but dedicated group of spectators who stayed to watch rather than make an early start on getting dry, fed and watered. Cox & Worth played some more good stuff but found Kinnaird holders Riki Houlden & Hugo Young a bit too hot to handle in their quarter-final, while Toop & Wiseman's run came to an end at the hands of the evergreen Tom Dunbar & Seb Cooley as the top two seeds progressed serenely to the second day. Millhillians Sunil Tailor & Charles Plummer were looking to follow up their first major final in the London in November with another strong showing and also came through in straight games against Howard Wiseman & Prajeeth Sathiyamoorthy, although the Olavian pair pushed them close in the third game. Taylor & Blofield's reward for their group stage heroics was a crack at fifth seeds Noah Caplin & Laurie Brock, playing in their first major tournament together. This was a much longer match then the other three and threatened to bleed into the organiser's precious curry time, but was a fascinating match up, and with the two left-handers - and erstwhile partners - Taylor and Caplin taking each other on, there was plenty of (generally amiable) discussion to go with the entertaining Fives. The first two games were shared and the third one proved to be key, a long, tight, sometimes tense battle that Brock & Caplin edged 12-10. The fourth game quickly went Brock & Caplin's way to take them into the last four.
Sunday morning was thankfully sunny and bright, with the sawdust no longer required; could either of the challengers find a way to trouble the top two seeds and prevent the apparently inevitable final clash between the two top pairs in the game at the moment? In short, the answer was no, with Brock & Caplin competitive against Houlden & Young without ever threatening on the scoreboard. Plummer & Tailor had pushed Dunbar & Cooley in the Kinnaird semis last season, taking the third game and caused some problems again; having lost the first to 7, the Millhillian pair led for large chunks of the second game, getting to 10-8 before being pegged back and eventually defeated 10-13. This knocked the stuffing out of their challenge and Tom & Seb raced through the third to claim their place in yet another final and the latest instalment in the recent series of finals between these two pairs.
Tom & Seb won last year's Northern final after dominating the first two games and something similar happened this time round, their greater attacking threat plus a strong setpiece taking them to 12-7 wins in both of the first two games. Tom & Seb had more miles in the legs, though, and the younger pair began to sense an oppportunity in the third, cutting better and taking advantage of their ailing opponents. In the case of a lesser pair, this momentum shift might have been decisive - could Tom & Seb find a way to keep in touch and get over the line in the fourth? They could (did you ever doubt it?) but it was hard work, with both tiring and not able to produce quite the level of speed and movement around the court that they would expect to do at their freshest. That they were able to stay in the contest at all was thanks to their cut returning, with a high percentage of cuts coming back throughout the fourth, partly of course due to their own outstanding ability in that crucial area but also to an extent due to a bit of passivity from their opponents, who were unable to repeat the devastating cutting that took them to a convincing win in the Kinnaird Cup final replay at the start of the season.
As the fourth game approached its conclusion, never has the Dunbar call of "Gotta be now, Seb..." been more apt. Surely a fifth game would mean the Westminster pair becoming strong favourites as Tom & Seb gathered their last vestiges of energy, indeed Tom couldn't remember the last time he had chosen sudden death at 10-10 to keep the game as short as possible. And then suddenly it was over, a Houlden cut flying out of court to take Tom & Seb to gameball, another cut returned (the story of the fourth game) and a winner found. 12-10 to Tom & Seb to end another fabulous contest between these four brilliant players and give the winners a remarkable 11th title as a pair and a 15th in total for Tom. Can anyone stop them meeting again in the Kinnaird final in a few weeks time, where Seb will be hoping once again not to be the finalist with the least hair.
Sunday also saw a terrific Main Plate competition with 18 pairs taking part. Four groups each produced a winner, with the two losing play-off pairs from Saturday making it through against two of the top school pairs on the circuit, Olavians Henry Etherington & Oscar Rushton and Ipswichians Daniel Ingram & Charlie Dinmore. Henry & Oscar were unable to find a way past their Olavian predecessors Aadi & Tanish and Dan & Charlie were swatted aside by Alex Abrahams & Sahil Shah, leaving the two senior pairs to face off in an excellent final, which was won 15-11 by Alex & Sahil.
While all of this was going on on half of Shrewsbury's courts, the chapel side bore witness to the wonder that is the Northern Festival, where pairs from Cumbria to Kent, from 10 to 76 and from novice to veteran came together for a weekend that showed Fives at its finest. There were the usual range of Shrewsbury boys and girls pairs, the traditional sprinkling of Olavians and Ipswichians, experienced campaigners such as the Salopian Mitchell brothers and Justin Adie & John Tate and W&E's hardy campaigners Jamie Hepburn & Tom Goodman, mixed pairs like Jamie Lai & Jessye Tu and Mandie Barnes & Graham Kitteridge and uberveterans Peter Boughton and John Cooley. John was part of a remarkable pairing; casual observers of the draw may have done a double take at the presence in Festival Group D of Toop & Cooley but on closer inspection John and 10 year old William Toop made a fantastic Festival pair, showing glimpses of great promise for the future (and that was just John). Also there in force this year were Team St.Bees, with some tournament newcomers taking their first competitive steps but also a couple of pairs with genuine hopes of a good run in the competition in staff pair Laurence Gribble & Brad Simpson and top school pair Philippe Imbert & Misha Danylenko.
In a similar vein to the main competition, the seven groups fought it out during the first phase of play on Saturday, with the top two progressing to the next round (two of the group winners getting a bye through to the quarter-finals). Competition to make it through was fierce, with more than one pair missing out on a qualifying spot by points difference, including Imbert & Danylenko, much to their disappointment. Shrewsbury U15 pair Haswell & Jenkins sprung a minor surprise with a win over last year's runners-up Ian & Andrew Mitchell, who recovered well to win their second round match against Hepburn & Goodman to join their group conquerors in the last eight. Gribble & Simpson were flying the flag well for St.Bees, making it through their group and then coming from 14-10 down to win their knockout match 15-14 against Lancaster University's Alex Phillips & Raven Shuttleworth. There was another 15-14 result as Shrewsbury's Athwal & Kundu pipped Lai & Tu and the crowd favourite Old Ipswichian pairing of Peter Boughton & Sam Cook gained a reprieve as their Shrewsbury opponents had to concede at match point, unable to come back the following day. The final quarter-final spots were taken by Ipswich U16 pair Max Williams & Jake Shelley - already winners at the Midlands festival and semi-finalists at the London version this season - and Adie & Tate, who held off the challenge of Charlotta Cooley & Betsy Laws in a tight battle.
The quarter-finals took place on Sunday morning; the Mitchells showed their group defeat had been a mere blip with a convincing win over the highly-ranked Shrewsbury pair of Lupton & Swan, Haswell & Jenkins continued to impress with a comfortable victory against compatriots Athwal & Kundu, Adie & Tate succumbed to injury at the end of a tight first game against Williams & Shelley and Boughton & Cook ended St.Bees hopes with a 15-14, 12-8 win over Gribble & Simpson, despite doing their best to twice throw away enormous leads. When they took the first game of their semi-final against the Mitchells 14-13 - clinched with a magnificent Boughton reaction volley that fizzed into the hole - it looked as though it might be their year, but in fact that was where they had peaked, as the Mitchells began to take control in the second before dominating the third, thus reaching a second successive final. This time they would be up against Williams & Shelley, winners in the second semi-final (another Ipswich v Shrewsbury encounter) against Haswell & Jenkins in one of the best matches of the weekend, a three set classic that was in doubt right up until the last run of points and in which all four players played some really excellent Fives.
The Mitchells had lost narrowly against the father & son Christie duo last year; this time they faced a rather different proposition in the shape of the Ipswich U16 pair. The first game was all Ipswich, Max & Jake dominating to win 12-2. The second game was much tighter as Ian & Andrew began to get to grips with their opponents and reached 10-10. Perhaps drawing on the experience of winning two extended games in their Repton triumph earlier in the year, Max & Jake didn't panic and produced their best Fives just when they needed it. 15-11 to the Ipswich pair and a second big win of the season. Main competition next year, lads!
There were also Festival plates, lots of plates, with Cooley & Laws coming out on top in the battle of the pairs who lost in the second round and Imbert & Danylenko regrouping impressively having not made it into the knockouts with a dominant vicory in Plate B, with a win in the final over surprise qualifiers Olavian U14 pair Ivan Bugjaev & Michael Lam, who had done an amazing job in beating two more highly ranked Olavian pairs (as well as lots of others!) to make it to the final.
And so ended another fantastic Northern Tournament, with only the story of the EFA's Secretary handing over a "stolen" suitcase and a Kinnaird winner to the EFA's CEO in a Tesco's car park off the M42 to complete the weekend's events.
Our thanks go to Andy Barnard, Adam Morris, Seb Cooley and everyone at Shrewsbury School for hosting the tournament, to Advanta Wealth for their sponsorship, to Andrew Mitchell for his wonderful organisational work and to everyone who took part and made it such an enjoyable weekend. If you've not yet made it up to Shrewsbury for the Northern, maybe you should get it onto your Fives itinerary next year?
Play-Offs
J.Toop & G.Wiseman beat A.Agarwal & T.Arjaria 15-8
T.Cox & R.Worth beat A.Abrahams & S.Shah 15-11
Quarter-Finals
R.Houlden & H.Young beat T.Cox & R.Worth 3-0 (12-2, 12-3, 12-4)
L.Brock & N.Caplin beat E.Taylor & H.Blofield 3-1 (12-6, 7-12, 12-10, 12-3)
C.Plummer & S.Tailor beat H.Wiseman & P.Sathiyamoorthy 3-0 (12-5, 12-4, 13-10)
T.Dunbar & S.Cooley beat J.Toop & G.Wiseman 3-0 (12-2, 12-1, 12-3)
Semi-Finals
R.Houlden & H.Young beat L.Brock & N.Caplin 3-0 (12-2, 12-5, 12-4)
T.Dunbar & S.Cooley beat C.Plummer & S.Tailor 3-0 (12-7, 13-10, 12-2)
Final
T.Dunbar & S.Cooley beat R.Houlden & H.Young 3-1 (12-7, 12-7, 5-12, 12-10)
Plate A
Semi-Finals
A.Abrahams & S.Shah beat D.Ingram & C.Dinmore 15-3
A.Agarwal & T.Arjaria beat H.Etherington & O.Rushton 15-7
Final
A.Abrahams & S.Shah beat A.Agarwal & T.Arjaria 15-11
Festival
Second Round
C.Haswell & G.Jenkins BYE
G.Athwal & R.Kundu beat J.Lai & J.Tu 15-14
J.Shelley & M.Williams beat C.Perks & T.Miyakoshi 15-2
J.Adie & J.Tate beat C.Cooley & B.Laws 15-11
L.Gribble & B.Simpson beat A.Phillips & R.Shuttleworth 15-14
S.Cook & P.Boughton beat F.Ogilby & J.Hollinshead 7-14 ret
A.Mitchell & I.Mitchell beat J.Hepburn & T.Goodman 15-2
J.Swan & J.Lupton BYE
Quarter-Finals
C.Haswell & G.Jenkins beat G.Athwal & R.Kundu 2-0
J.Shelley & M.Williams beat J.Adie & J.Tate 2-0 (12-10 ret)
S.Cook & P.Boughton beat L.Gribble & B.Simpson 2-0 (15-14, 12-8)
A.Mitchell & I.Mitchell beat J.Swan & J.Lupton 2-0 (12-2, 12-9)
Semi-Finals
J.Shelley & M.Williams beat C.Haswell & G.Jenkins 2-1 (12-4, 8-12, 12-7)
A.Mitchell & I.Mitchell beat S.Cook & P.Boughton 2-1 (13-14, 12-8, 12-5)
Final
J.Shelley & M.Williams beat A.Mitchell & I.Mitchell 2-0 (12-2, 15-11)
Quarter-Finalists plate
1. J.Swan & J.Lupton
2. L.Gribble & B.Simpson
3. G.Athwal & R.Kundu
Plate A (Round Robin)
Winners: C.Cooley & B.Laws
Plate B
Semi-Finals
P.Imbert & M.Danylenko beat B.Clark & T.Leung 15-1
I.Bugjaev & M.Lam beat M.Bowman & E.Bell 15-14
Final
P.Imbert & M.Danylenko beat I.Bugjaev & M.Lam 15-9
