Two Turnbulls In A Row For Shrewsbury
02/12/24: There was a bumper field of 34 pairs in this year's Turnbull Trophy in association with Advanta Wealth, which was held at Eton and won by Shrewsbury for the second year in a row.
The 34 pairs were there representing nine schools - Shrewsbury, Eton, QE Barnet, Charterhouse, Repton, Ipswich, St.Olave's, City of London and Cranleigh. The majority consisted of one former and one current pupil of the school, with a few coaches and the odd guest player standing in for alumni in some cases.
This was the second external event back at Eton in consecutive weeks and it was great to see the courts nearly full all day, with the new Fives Centre also coming into its own to cope with the number of players. After the usual early chaos of working out who was playing with who, who had pulled out at the last minute and who was arriving late (children's shows, cancelled trains, going to Harrow instead), the morning's play settled into a group phase with seven groups producing two qualifiers each for the main knockout stages.
With some of the internal team rankings involving a certain amount of guesswork, there was an element of luck involved as to whether pairs landed in an easier or tougher group. Two groups in particular proved to be extremely tight with a three way tie for first place in Group E (Eton 5 very unlucky to miss out by a couple of points at the hands of Shrewsbury 2 and St.Olave's 2) and a three way tie for second place in Group D (Repton 2 sneaking through at the expense of Shrewsbury 3 and Eton 4).
The top two seeded pairs - Shrewsbury 1 and Eton 1 - both cruised through their groups and directly into the quarter-finals, while the other group winners and runners-up played off for the other six spots in the Last Eight. Repton 1 won the Derby derby against Repton 2, the two St.Olave's pairs both looked strong, defeating QEB 2 and Shrewsbury 5 respectively, and QEB 1 made short work of Charterhouse 1. The two closest ties of the round saw QEB 3 record an excellent 15-11 win over Eton 3 and Shrewsbury 2 win a 15-13 thriller against Ipswich 1, with Adam Morris and Tim Gregory fulfilling their contractual obligations to play against each other in every tournament they enter. Ipswich 1 made up for the disappointment by going on to win Plate A for the six losing pairs at this stage of the competition, defeating Eton 3 (Ben Berridge & Oscar Novis) 12-10 in the final.
None of the quarter-finals were especially close, as the top four pairs separated themselves from the rest. Prajeeth Sathiyamoorthy & Henry Etherington won the all-Olavian match against Dom Robson & Luke Whitnall, QEB 3's (Abilash Sivathasan & Yash Kedia) fine run came to a shuddering halt at the hands of Seb Cooley & Michael Draper (Shrewsbury 1), Sunil Tailor came out on top against his regular tournament partner Charles Plummer as QEB 1 beat Repton 1 and Shrewsbury 2's high wire act finally came to an end against Eton 1 (James Piggot & Bertie Stanley). Shrewsbury 1 continued to dominate proceedings in the semi-finals, Seb showing no mercy on his fellow Olavians Prajeeth & Henry, while Eton accelerated away from QEB after a close first half of the other semi-final. The final was therefore a second successive clash between Seb & James, although with different partners this year. The 2023 final was a three game thriller; the 2024 one didn't quite match it but for long periods of both games Eton were in contention, James Piggot showing once again that when he does venture onto a competitive court, he is capable of causing problems for anyone. The two schoolboys both rose to the occasion splendidly, making it a very watchable final, but in both games the Shrewsbury pair just had the edge and retained the title with a 12-9, 12-7 victory.
Meanwhile the 20 pairs who hadn't made it out of the group stages were involved in an exciting afternoon of quickfire knockout Fives, with all 20 starting off in Plate B but swiftly subdividing into several further plate competitions to determine their final ranking. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two pairs who missed out on morning qualification by the smallest margins made it through to the Plate B final, the Eton 5 father & son pairing of Henry & Lochie Turcan making a point to the Eton selectors with a 15-10 win over Eton 2 (Will Ponsonby & Peter Farquhar). The other father & son pairing (Tom Leach & Jan Michalski-Leach for Charterhouse 2) - having lost to Eton 2 in the quarter-finals of Plate B - won their last two matches 12-11 and 12-8 to clinch Plate B2.
Plate C produced some of the closest matches of the entire tournament, with the final the penultimate match of the day to finish. It was something of a classic, too, as Repton 3 (guest player Emily Scoones & Bri Hansen-Hoare) produced a stunning comeback from 0-7 down to win 12-8 against Charterhouse 3 (Matt Davis & Bertie Marshall-Rice). Shrewsbury 6 (Pete Griffiths & Monty Sharman) outlasted everyone else to win Plate C2.
To complete the set, Plate D was competed for by the four pairs who were knocked out in the pre-Last Sixteen round of Plate B. Eton 6 came out on top, but a special mention should be made of Cranleigh pair Charlotte Barr & Matilda Fincken, the youngest pair in the competition and one of only two all-female pairings. These two memorably won the senior girls competition at the National Schools' Championships earlier in the year and it was great to see them representing Cranleigh in this competition. Both have the ability to become leading players in the women's game in the years to come and it was a shame that they didn't record the win that their play on the day deserved, with 13-15, 10-12 and 11-12 defeats all on their scorecard during the course of the day. Hopefully we'll be seeing plenty more of them.
This was a vintage edition of the Turnbull Trophy, which fulfills a vital function in bridging the gap between the school and adult game as well as providing a fun day of Fives for nearly 70 players. It would be great to see a few more schools produce pairs next year, but the ones who did come this time round really went to town, with good numbers of pairs, notably the seven from QE Barnet, a remarkable achievement given that the school only has one court. When you then consider the youth and the high standard of play from all seven pairs, it makes it even more noteworthy and offers real hope that we will soon see some more Old Elizabethans follow the path trodden by Sunil Tailor towards the top echelons of the game.
Our thanks go to Sherisa Gumbs and Ryan Perrie at Eton for hosting the tournament, to Advanta Wealth for their sponsorship and to all those who organised pairs and came along to play and make it such a great occasion.
Main Competition
Round Two
QEB 3 (A.Sivathasan & Y.Kedia) beat Eton 3 (B.Berridge & O.Novis) 15-11
St.Olave's 1 (P.Sathiyamoorthy & H.Etherington) beat QEB 2 (V.Gudiwala & D.Dissanayake) 15-3
St.Olave's 2 (D.Robson & L.Whitnall) beat Shrewsbury 5 (G.Holliday & F.Ogilby) 15-8
QEB 1 (S.Tailor & Z.Phoplankar) beat Charterhouse (A.Knight & M.Gilardini) 15-3
Repton 1 (C.Plummer & Tom) beat Repton 2 (K.Hird & Fred) 15-5
Shrewsbury 2 (A.Morris & L.Hursthouse) beat Ipswich 1 (T.Gregory & D.Ingram) 15-13
Quarter-Finals
Shrewsbury 1 (S.Cooley & M.Draper) beat QEB 3 15-0
St.Olave's 1 beat St.Olave's 2 15-5
QEB 1 beat Repton 1 15-6
Eton 1 (J.Piggot & B.Stanley) beat Shrewsbury 2 15-3
Semi-Finals
Shrewsbury 1 beat St.Olave's 1 15-1
Eton 1 beat QEB 1 15-9
Final
Shrewsbury 1 beat Eton 1 2-0 (12-9, 12-7)
Plate A
Group Y
1. Eton 3
2. QEB 2
3. Shrewsbury 5
Group Z
1. Ipswich 1
2. Repton 2
3. Charterhouse 1
Final
Ipswich 1 beat Eton 3 12-10
Main Tournament Quarter-Finalists Plate
Repton 1 beat QEB 3 12-8
Plate B
Round One
Repton 4 (D.Exley & Alfie) beat City of London 2 (S.Kelly & S.Cochrane) 12-9
QEB 6 (I.Datta & A.Sharma) beat QEB 5 (M.Hurzuk & A.Bocus) 12-8
City of London 1 (M.Melessaccio & S.Cochrane) beat Cranleigh (C.Barr & M.Fincken) 12-10
Shrewsbury 6 (P.Griffiths & M.Sharman) beat Eton 6 (S.Hopton & P.de Caraman Chimay) 12-2
Round Two
Repton 4 beat QEB 4 (P.Bhavsar & A.Shah) 12-2
Charterhouse 4 (JB.Garway-Templeman & J.Formige) beat QEB 7 (A.Kumararuban & S.Peduru Hewage) 12-5
Eton 5 (H.Turcan & L.Turcan) beat Shrewsbury 6 12-5
Shrewsbury 3 M.Quinn & G.Battersby) beat Repton 3 (E.Scoones & Bri) 12-10
Charterhouse 2 (T.Leach & J.Leach-Michalski) beat QEB 6 12-3
Eton 2 (W.Ponsonby & P.Farquhar) beat Eton 4 (R.Swallow & A.Burford) 12-6
Ipswich 2 (S.Cass & S.Cook) beat Charterhouse 3 (M.Davis & B.Marshall-Rice) 12-9
Shrewsbury 4 (H.Webster & YL Mak) beat City of London 1 12-1
Quarter-Finals
Charterhouse 4 beat Repton 4 12-8
Eton 5 beat Shrewsbury 3 12-5
Eton 2 beat Charterhouse 2 12-7
Ipswich 2 beat Shrewsbury 4 12-6
Semi-Finals
Eton 5 beat Charterhouse 4 12-6
Eton 2 beat Ipswich 2 12-5
Final
Eton 5 beat Eton 2 15-10
3rd/4th
Charterhouse 4 beat Ipswich 2 12-4
Plate B2
Semi-Finals
Repton 4 beat Shrewsbury 3 w/o
Charterhouse 2 beat Shrewsbury 4 12-11
Final
Charterhouse 2 beat Repton 4 12-8
Plate C
Quarter-Finals
QEB 7 beat QEB 4 12-7
Repton 3 beat Shrewsbury 6 12-10
Eton 4 beat QEB 6 12-5
Charterhouse 3 beat City of London 1 12-4
Semi-Finals
Repton 3 beat QEB 7 12-10
Charterhouse 3 beat Eton 4 12-9
Final
Repton 3 beat Charterhouse 3 12-8
Plate C2
Semi-Finals
Shrewsbury 6 beat QEB 4 12-9
QEB 6 beat City of London 1 12-7
Final
Shrewsbury 6 beat QEB 6 w/o
Plate D
Semi-Finals
Eton 6 beat Cranleigh 12-2
QEB 5 beat City of London 2 12-8
Final
Eton 6 beat QEB 5 12-3
3rd/4th
City of London 2 beat Cranleigh 12-11
