2001 Universities Tournament

Seb Cooley reports:

Edgbaston Saturday 10th November 2001

The Universities Championships were held in Birmingham once again this year. Organised by James Toop despite his being in Germany, they were a demonstration of the power of electronic communication. Not of electric communications, however, as both Newcastle and Durham's sides' efforts to get to Birmingham were thwarted by a train cancellation. Apart from these pairs, it was astonishing to find that most players had arrived at the courts twenty minutes before the start time; are we seeing a new, punctual breed of fives players emerging?

After the necessary changes to the draw had been made, play began, with two pools of five pairs. With two of the top four seeds in each pool, there were likely to be some excellent matches early on. In the first group Oxford overturned their seeding of 3 by the narrowest of possible margins, edging out favourites London 12-7, 8-12. Since the pools were decided on points this was to throw London across to the other half of the draw for the semi-finals. In the scond group the match between second seeds Warwick and fourth seeds Cambridge was, apart from one player, a replay of last year's final. This too was close, but the defending champions Warwick held out to win 10-12, 12-8.

Since these seeds suffered no further upsets, the semi-finals were now set: Oxford's freshers Tom Dunbar and Sanjaya Ranasinghe met Nick Shaw and Paul Thompson of Cambridge in the top half while Chris and Seb Cooley faced each other representing London and Warwick respectively, Chris playing with Dan Hawkins and Seb with Paran Sarmah. The first of these matches was played immediately after lunch and Oxford looked more comfortable as the game progressed, winning 12-9, 12-4. Seb Cooley failed to get the most out of his young partner so from the lower half London comfortably took a spot in the final with a 12-5, 12-4 victory.

So a re-run of the close pools match was to be the final. Chris and Dan looked much more settled and confident now and Oxford never really seemed to find an answer for their steady play. The London pair took full advantage and overtuned the pools result decisively 12-3, 12-5.

The plate competition saw some much closer matches, the winners of each pool of three going directly to the final, which was the last match of the day to finish and proved to be a worthy climax. Cambridge 2 took the first game 12-7 but Oxford Brookes fought back to take the second 12-2. The third and final game was neck-and-neck throughout, at 10-10 being set to 13. Oxford Brookes got to 12 first but seemed unable to capitalise on a number of returned cuts. They held off Cambridge's attempts to draw level for three hands but could not themselves get that final point. After two astonishingly long and tense rallies Cambridge broke the deadlock to bring the scores level at 12-12 to a most emphatic call of "Foot" by one player. During the same hand, he called a double hit on a shot which might otherwise have won the match. Some breathtaking returns by both Oxford Brookes players kept the game alive and at one point it began to seem that the players were toying with the crowd. It was only after both sides had had at least a further three match points that Oxford Brookes eventually found a winner on their own serve to end a classic match and a great day.

Many thanks to King Edward's School for allowing us to use their facilities and again to James Toop for arranging the tournament. Roll on 2002!

Results

Semi-finals

Oxford (T.Dunbar & S.Ranasinghe) beat Cambridge 1 (N.Shaw & P.Thompson) 2-0 (12-9, 12-4)

London (C.Cooley & D.Hawkins) beat Warwick (S.Cooley & P.Sarmah) 2-0 (12-5, 12-4)

Final

London beat Oxford 1 2-0 (12-3, 12-5)

Plate Final

Oxford Brookes beat Cambridge 2 2-1 (7-12, 12-2, 13-12)