Oxbridge Dominance Broken As London Take The Universities Title

Oxbridge Dominance Broken As London Take The Universities Title

27/10/25: London ended Oxford's long winning streak to win the Jesters Universities men's title at Eton on Saturday.

Only once since 2005 has this tournament been won by a non-Oxbridge pair (UCL in 2020); the two non-Oxbridge winners before 2005 were London and Warwick and it was those two who met in the final this time around. With Nottingham and Exeter also making the semi-finals, this year's competition therefore had a very different feel to previous years.

16 pairs made it to the start line, slightly fewer than anticipated with Durham (illness) and Bath 2 (diary malfunction) dropping out late on and Cambridge arriving with only six players rather than the advertised nine, with the whereabouts of two of the missing men unknown. Three hasty rewrites of the draw later, we were ready to go and the morning's action consisted of four groups of four pairs battling for places in either the main competition or plate quarter-finals in the afternoon. It was great to see so many different universities represented, with Oxford, Cambridge, Oxford Brookes, UCL, QM, Warwick, Manchester, Nottingham, Exeter, Loughborough and Bath all present and correct. Even more wide-ranging was the number of schools represented with players from the following all taking part, alongside those who have learned their Fives at Oxford & Cambridge: St.Olave's, Ipswich, St.Bees, Alleyn's, Charterhouse, Harrow, KES Birmingham, City of London, Berkhamsted, QEB, Aldenham, Highgate, Shrewsbury, RGS High Wycombe and Westminster.

The first three groups were relatively straightforward: Warwick - U25 champion Isaac Weaver and 2025 Schools' Open winner Tanish Arjaria - cruised through Group A ahead of the Oxford first string (Olavians Tommy Farmer & Aaditya Deshmukh), the Buckingham PGCE students Karen Hird & Zoe Wheale coming third ahead of Bath's Reptonian/Olavian pairing of Henry Barton-Smith & Ethan Nancekivell-Smith.

London's Olavians Prajeeth Sathiyamoorthy - remarkably never before a finalist in this competition and now in his sixth and final eligible year - and EFA Young Player of the Year Aadi Agarwal looked dialled in from the start in Group B, making short work of Cambridge's second pair (a rotating three out of those who had actually remembered to turn up), the Oxford/Cambridge combo of William Green & Indigo Luksch and Nottingham's 2024 semi-finalists Franklin Baron & Elliot Caldwell, who easily took the second qualifying spot.

Group C was dominated by the other 2024 semi-finalists Exeter, with Harrovian Fred Prickett & Edwardian Tom Hoskins seeing off the potentially awkward threat of Loughborough - another Olavian in squash prodigy Caleb Boy alongside the first product of St.Bees to play in the tournament for some time, Suproto Mansur - who came second at the expense of the ex-QEB Barnet pair Muhammad Anas Bocus & Neev Sanyal (representing Manchester and Queen Mary's) and Cambridge 1 (Giles Holliday & Mark Ludden).

Much more keenly fought was Group D: Oxford 3's Westminsters Kieran Saujani-Lee & Sacha Hunter found themselves up against three strong pairs, who were fighting for the two available qualifying slots. Oxford 2 (Nick Choustikov & Rohan Tse) drew first blood with a tight 15-13 win over the Manchester/Exeter hybrid pair of Cholmeleian Fernando Lee & Aldenhamian Frankie Manderson-Harkin but couldn't repeat the feat in their next game against Oxford Brookes (Gwydion Wiseman & Carthusian Will Bishop), going down to a 12-15 defeat. The drama was only just beginning, though, as Fernando & Frankie threw everything they had at the Brookes pair in the final game, coming from behind to get to 14-14 before Gwydion & Will finally secured their place in the last eight, with Fernando & Frankie unlucky to find themselves just missing out and in the Plate.

The two top ranked pairs continued their untroubled progress in the quarter-finals, Warwick beating Loughborough 15-2 and London 15-1 winners over Oxford 2. Nottingham repeated their quarter-final win over Oxford Brookes from last year, this time by the more comprehensive scoreline of 15-8, with Bishop and an ailing Wiseman unable to withstand the Nottingham juggernaut*. The closest match was the one between Exeter and Oxford 1, in which Farmer & Deshmukh had started in imperious form, a stream of winners taking them out to leads of 8-2 and 9-4. They couldn't quite sustain that early burst of form, however, and in a match that pefectly demonstrated the difference between playing a set to 12 and one to 15, Exeter gradually began to reel them in. Both Tom & Fred began to find more cut returns and better attacking volleys; under the increased pressure, Tommy & Aaditya began to make mistakes that hadn't been there earlier in the match. From 10-10 the Oxford pair rallied briefly, retaking the lead at 12-10, but that was the cue for Tom & Fred to play their best Fives of the match just when they needed it most, coming through to win 15-13 and make a third semi-final in consecutive years.

As with the quarter-finals, the semis mainly served to demonstrate the gap between the top two pairs and the rest of the field. Warwick won the battle of the two Ipswichian/Olavian pairs 12-4, 12-1 while London never let Tom & Fred into the game, leaving Nottingham and Exeter both as losing semi-finalists for the second year in a row, although both pairs can be extremely pleased with the way they played against top quality opposition, even if it wasn't really reflected on the scoreboard.

The final was a fascinating match up; Isaac and Prajeeth had already met in the final of the Under 25s a few weeks ago, Isaac emerging victorious on that occasion. Their partners in this one were much more used to playing together, Aadi & Tanish having finished their outstanding school Fives career with wins in the Midlands tournament and the Schools' Nationals last year. Hopes were high of a close, exciting match but it never really materialised; right from the start, Aadi & Prajeeth took control, playing with pace, accuracy and intensity. Tanish in particular struggled to cut either of his opponents down consistently and had several changes of cutter during the two games. Isaac was always chasing the game and Prajeeth showed his customary flair while simply not making any of the errors that can sometimes creep into his game. Aadi was simply outstanding from start to finish, controlling the game when on the top step, cutting beautifully and finding an immaculate length with his volleys in a performance that shows he is already playing at a level that puts him right towards the top end of the senior game.

The afternoon also saw plenty of excellent Fives in the various Plate competitions. Oxford 1 came out on top in the losing quarter-finalists plate, beating the Oxford second pair 15-7 before holding on to beat a resurgent Loughborough 15-13. Plate A was dominated by Exeter/Manchester, who were so unlucky not to have made it through in the morning and who took it out on all of the pairs they came up against in the Plate, defeating Oxford/Cambridge, Buckingham (surely heavy favourites for the women's competition in January) and then Bath for a combined loss of just 4 points. Cambridge 1 somehow found themselves in Plate B, which they also won comfortably, and all of the remaining pairs either had a win or two or at the very least some good close, competitive games.

My thanks go to the Jesters, whose generous sponsorship covers the students' travel expenses, making it possible for so many pairs to travel from far and wide to take part and also to Eton for hosting the competition.

*(c) F.Baron

Quarter-Finals

Warwick (I.Weaver & T.Arjaria) beat Loughborough (C.Boy & S.Mansur) 15-2

Nottingham (E.Caldwell & F.Baron) beat Oxford Brookes (G.Wiseman & W.Bishop) 15-8

Exeter (F.Prickett & T.Hoskins) beat Oxford 1 (T.Farmer & A.Deshmukh) 15-13

London (P.Sathiyamoorthy & A.Agarwal) beat Oxford 2 (N.Choustikov & R.Tse) 15-1

Semi-Finals

Warwick beat Nottingham 2-0 (12-4, 12-1)

London beat Exeter 2-0 (12-2, 12-1)

Final

London beat Warwick 2-0 (12-6, 12-2)

Quarter-Finalists Plate