Farmer & Etherington Win The U21s

Farmer & Etherington Win The U21s

19/01/26: This year's Men's U21 tournament in association with Advanta Wealth was won at Eton on Sunday by Olavians Tommy Farmer & Henry Etherington.

With recent winners Gwydion Wiseman & Jack Pemberton now too old for this competition and one or two other big names unavailable, Sunday's tournament produced a great opportunity for someone new to get their names on the trophy. Sadly there weren't enough entries to run a women's tournament this year, but 13 pairs made it to the men's competition, with a strong Shrewsbury School contingent joined by university players from Bath and Oxford, school pairs from Charterhouse and Eton and Westway duo Lucas Ng & Luca Saftiou, with Luca flying the flag for the Old Burfordians who were introduced to the game during Steve Kaaber-Gore's time there.

The morning group phase sifted the pack into eight quarter-finalists and five plate contenders with some tight matches to determine the exact placings but no major shocks.

The two top-seeded pairs both progressed comfortably through their first knockout tie, Shrewsbury's top pair of Michael Draper & George Battersby seeing off Carthusians Jules Formige & Matteo Gilardini and the past & present Olavian pairing of Tommy Farmer & Henry Etherington racing past Etonians Alex Burford (struggling a bit with a back injury) & U15 William Battersby. The Shrewsbury third pair of Nathan Hammond & Callum Dovaston put in a strong performance to beat the Reptonian/Ipswichian Bah University pairing of Henry Barton-Smith & Sam Allen and second pair Sam Spiby & Rufus Darke made it three Salopian pairs in the semis with a narrow 15-12 win over fourth pair Jack Lupton & Danil Metelski.

The four losing quarter-finalists played a very close fought mini-plate, with Burford battling on through two 11-12 defeats and Lupton & Metelski deservedly coming out on top with a win in the final over Allen & Barton-Smith.

The five pairs in Plate A were playing in a round robin format, with Shrewsbury's 5th, 6th and 7th pairs taking on Ng & Saftiou and the second Eton pair, Constantine Nur Shah & Ryan H'ng. Shrewsbury's fifth pair of Hollinshead & Sharman came out on top, just asserting their seniority over the other two Shrewsbury pairs with two tight victories.

Hammond & Dovaston had played some good Fives and done well to reach the last four, but their race came to an end against Farmer & Etherington, who cruised into the final having not yet had to expend too much energy. The other semi was far closer as the two top Shrewsbury pairs took each other on. The pressure was on Draper & Battersby as the higher ranked pair but their hopes of a second successive final took a knock as they lost the first game 14-13 to Spiby & Darke, who got out in front early and then impressively found a second wind having missed chances to win at 11-9 up to put themselves a game up. There was a faint whiff of panic around the first pair between games, but to their credit they focused on the task in hand once back on court and began to take control of the match in the second game. Spiby & Darke continued to play well but weren't able to reproduce the heroics of the first game as Draper & Battersby took the second game to 7 and then repeated the dose in the third to reach the final for the second year in a row.

The final saw Farmer (an U16 winner back in 2022 and Oxford University Secretary this year) and Etherington (U16 finalist last year and winner of the Midlands Tournament earlier in the season) face their first really tough challenge of the day as they took on a Shrewsbury pair determined to go one better than last year. The first game in particular was close, but Farmer & Etherington were a bit more solid at the set piece and just that little bit tighter and more controlled around the court, with Henry his usual unruffled self and Tommy attacking well but also reining himself in when necessary and not giving his opponents any freebies. Michael & George produced some good Fives throughout but couldn't quite match their opponents for consistency, especially on return of cut and the Olavian pair always had their noses in front to win 12-9, 12-7 and claim the trophy for the first time.

My thanks go to Ryan Perrie and Eton for hosting the tournament, to Advanta Wealth for their sponsorship and to Sherisa Gumbs, Seb Cooley, Andy Barnard and Tom Leach for their help setting things up and their support on the day.

Play-Off

A.Burford & W.Battersby beat C.Nur Shah & R.H’ng 12-3

Quarter-Finals

T.Farmer & H.Etherington beat A.Burford & W.Battersby 15-0

N.Hammond & C.Dovaston beat H.Barton-Smith & S.Allen 15-7

S.Spiby & R.Darke beat J.Lupton & D.Metelski 15-12

M.Draper & G.Battersby beat J.Formige & M.Gilardini 15-6

Semi-Finals

T.Farmer & H.Etherington beat N.Hammond & C.Dovaston 2-0 (12-1, 12-2)

M.Draper & G.Battersby beat S.Spiby & R.Darke 2-1 (13-14, 12-7, 12-7)

Final

T.Farmer & H.Etherington beat M.Draper & G.Battersby 2-0 (12-9, 12-7)