Oxford University Back From The Brink To Retain The EFA Trophy

Oxford University Back From The Brink To Retain The EFA Trophy

16/02/26: Oxford University beat Old Ipswichians in a thrilling EFA Trophy in association with Advanta Wealth final at Eton yesterday.

The qualifying rounds back in November had featured fourteen teams and the top four were back at Eton yesterday to fight it out for the trophy - defending champions Oxford University, perennial challengers North Oxford, the strongest Ipswichian team for some years and an Olavian team consisting mainly of current school players.

The two Oxford sides - familiar foes in this competition - faced each other in the semi-finals this year in a repeat of last year's final. The students had last year's captain Joel Robb back in the line-up alongside Brookes student Gwydion Wiseman and four of this year's potential Varsity match line-up in Tommy Farmer, Aaditya Deshmukh, Nick Choustikov and Shiloh Wu. North Oxford had made several personnel changes from the group stages, including an appearance for newly matriculated Oxford student Lewis Drummond (not considered for OUEFC selection in order to stick with the qualifying team) and recent alumnus Edwin Gosnell, a member of the winning team last year. They were joined by Old SummerFieldian Fred Prickett and three North Oxford stalwarts in Graham Pulsford, Karen Hird and Stephen Thatcher. The University team struck first, moving a game ahead in all three pairs. Tommy & Aaditya at second pair had left it late at pair two, coming from 6-9 down to win againt Graham & Lewis, but they quickly got into their stride after that, racing away with the next two. It was a different story in the other two pairs, however, as North Oxford fought back. Karen & Stephen recovered well from their slow start, seizing control in the second game against Joel & Shiloh and never really letting go after that, turning the 0-1 deficit into a 3-1 win, leaving the match to be decided by the first pair game. Fred & Edwin had also levelled at 1-1 but then lost the third 10-12 to Gwydion & Nick in what was a very close and high quality match. When the Oxford students went 11-6 up in the fourth it looked all over, but Fred & Edwin had other ideas, saving a match point with Edwin on the floor and playing the balll up off the side of the buttress and then going on a run of their own, bringing the score back to 11-11 and then going 13-11 ahead. Just when it looked as though the match was headed to a deciding game, though, there was one final twist, Gwydion & Nick halting the slide just in time, getting back to 13-13 and winning the decisive point to take their team back into the final.

The other semi-final was a bit more straightforward, although there was a moment of jeopardy for the Ipswichians as Olavian first pair Henry Etherington & Oscar Rushton took the third game 13-12 against Isaac Weaver & Paul Thompson, having lost the first two. Isaac & Paul quickly got back on track, though, winning the fourth 12-8, and with OI second pair Dan Ingram & Tim Gregory racing through three games in double quick time against Colin Wilson & Luke Whitnall, the Ipswichians were assured of their first final appearance since 2006. The Olavian third pair of Krivi Bhavsar & Aayan Shetty denied the Ipswichians a clean sweep with a 3-0 win over Henry Gardner & Steve Burnell, but the Olavian youngsters headed for the 3rd/4th place play-off - which they went on to win 2-1 - while the OIs headed into the final.

Both finalists rang the changes for the final: the OIs had some fresh legs to bring into the team, with Simon Cass and Charlotta Cooley coming in for Gardner and Burnell. There were further changes, with Gregory & Ingram stepping up to first pair and Weaver moving to second to partner Cooley, while Thompson dropped down to third to partner Cass. The University also shuffled the pack, Farmer moving up to first pair to partner Wiseman, Robb playing with Deshmukh at second and Choustikov moving down to third to partner Wu.

It was quickly apparent that moving Weaver down to second pair was going to ensure a comfortable OI victory there as Isaac & Charlotta made short work of Aaditya & Joel, who was also starting to struggle with a bruised hand. But did the OIs have enough firepower at either first or third pair to complete the job? The first game at first pair was tight, a 12-10 win for Gwydion & Tommy over Tim & Dan, but a more decisive 12-3 second game took the students 2-0 ahead and just one game from victory. Things had started better for the Ipswichians at third pair, with Paul Thompson reliving his late 90s Oxford-beating Varsity match pomp and dominating the top step as he and Simon took the first game 12-8 against Nick & Shiloh. There were still a few twists and turns to come, though, as the Oxford third pair turned things around in the second to level at 1-1 before edging a tight third game 12-11. The first pair picture was also changing, however: Tim & Dan began to gain a foothold in the third game and finished strongly to take it 12-9 and revive their hopes of victory. By the end of the fourth game, with Tommy now struggling with an injured shin and virtually playing on one leg, it seemed that the Ipswich pair - 12-4 fourth game winners - were going to be unstoppable with doubts over whether Tommy would even be able to complete the match. He opted to carry on and before the fifth game he & Gwydion worked out their game plan, based around what Tommy was able to do. With Gwydion covering more ground and Tommy concentrating on cutting and basing himself by the buttress and swinging hard, they crucially got a couple of early points on the board, giving themselves the confidence that a win was achievable and sowing a few seeds of doubt in Ipswich minds, which were exacerbated by a couple of mistakes from Tim & Dan that simply hadn't been there in the previous two games. Remarkably, the Oxford pair then maintained their lead, built on it and stormed through to a 12-7 victory that had seemed so unlikely just half an hour earlier. Attention now turned to the third pair, which had suddenly become the key match. The fourth game was almost as close as the third, but again the Oxford pair held a narrow advantage, Nick & Shiloh closing out the win just a few moments after their first pair had completed their comeback, much to the surprise and delight of the Dark Blue team and the disappointment of the OIs, who had come so close to taking the title.

This was a terrific day's Fives, with all four teams playing to a very high level and very competitively, but with good humour and excellent sportsmanship throughout, making it a pleasure to watch and be a part of. When added to the fantastic fourteen team qualifying competition, this was proof indeed that the EFA Trophy is one of the most popular, successful and enjoyable tournaments on the Fives calendar.

My thanks go to Eton for hosting the compeition, to Advanta Wealth for their support and to all those who organised teams and played and made it such a great competition.

Semi-Finals

Old Ipswichians beat Old Olavians 2-1

I.Weaver & P.Thompson beat H.Etherington & O.Rushton 3-1 (12-4, 12-3, 12-13, 12-8)

T.Gregory & D.Ingram beat L.Whitnall & C.Wilson 3-0 (12-1, 12-0, 12-4)

S.Burnell & H.Gardner lost to A.Shetty & K.Bhavsar 0-3 (1-12, 7-12, 4-12)

Oxford University beat North Oxford 2-1

G.Wiseman & N.Choustikov beat F.Prickett & E.Gosnell 3-1 (12-9, 9-12, 12-10, 14-13)

T.Farmer & A.Deshmukh beat G.Pulsford & L.Drummond 3-0 (12-9, 12-2, 12-2)

J.Robb & S.Wu lost to K.Hird & S.Thatcher 1-3 (12-10, 9-12, 7-12, 8-12)

Final

Oxford University beat Old Ipswichians 2-1

G.Wiseman & T.Farmer beat T.Gregory & D.Ingram 3-2 (12-10, 12-3, 9-12, 4-12, 12-7)