Barber Cup Stays With The Olavians

23/02/26: The Old Olavians retained the Alan Barber Cup in association with Advanta Wealth at Eton yesterday, defeating the Old Westminsters in a high quality final.

Old Olavians beat Old Westminsters 2-1 at Eton 22/02/26:

J.Toop & S.Cooley beat H.Young & L.Brock 3-0 (12-9, 12-6, 12-8)

A.Agarwal & P.Sathiyamoorthy lost to R.Houlden & J.Alster 0-3 (1-12, 3-12, 13-14)

T.Gallagher & H.Ravi beat S.Shah & B.Merrett 3-0 (12-7, 12-7, 12-3) 

These two teams have now met each other in three successive Barber Cup finals; while this one didn't quite go down to the wire in the way the first two did, it was still a hardfought match with plenty of excitement and a lot of quality, with all three pairs producing some compelling and highly watchable Fives.

For the first time in their long period of Barber Cup dominance in the modern era (24 wins in the last 27 years) Olavian captain Howard Wiseman left himself out of the starting line-up, leaving James Toop & Seb Cooley to fly the flag for the older Olavian generation. They were joined in the team by Aadi Agarwal and Tom Gallagher from last year's winning team, with Prajeeth Sathiyamoorthy returning to the line-up and Harry Ravi making his first final appearance. The Westminsters side contained one change from last year's team, with Sahil Shah replacing the injured Issy Salim.

The first mark on the scoreboard was made by the Westminster second pair, with OW captain Riki Houlden dropping down to play with his old school partner James Alster. They made short work of Aadi & Prajeeth in the first two games and looked to be on course for a comfortable win before the young Olavian pair found their feet and found a more effective strategy in game three, which they came within a whisker of winning before the Westminsters came from 11-13 down to win 14-13. 

The first two games at third pair took longer, but both went clearly in favour of Tom & Harry against Ben & Sahil, the Olavians bossing the set piece to win both to 7 points. Unlike in the second pair, there was no third game comeback as the Olavians closed it out to 3 to level the tie at 1-1 overall.

This left the match to be decided at first pair, with the two experienced Olavians teaming up to take on Hugo Young & Laurie Brock. By the time the other two pairs had finished, the first pair were embarking on a third game, with James & Seb 2-0 up, having got well out in front in the first and got over the line just in time with the Westminsters hitting back and then largely controlling the second game. With a good crowd watching, the Westminsters threw everything they had at the Olavian pair in a long and very high quality third game; they got off to a good start with a 3-0 lead but then got stuck, with Seb & James producing some fantastic cutting (probably the biggest and most decisive difference between the two pairs over the course of the whole match). The standard was sky high, with long rallies, great shotmaking and very few unforced errors, but it was the Olavian pair who had the edge in the set piece and the slightly greater attacking threat, recovering the early deficit and then keeping their noses in front all the way to the finish line.

Alan Barber's nephew Richard - himself a former Chairman and President of the EFA - was on hand to present the trophy to the victorious team, who continue to set the standards in this competition over a quarter of a century after embarking on their remarkable winning run. 

Our thanks go to Eton for hosting the final, to Advanta Wealth for their sponsorship, to all of the teams who entered teams into the competition this year and the twelve players who provided such fantastic entertainment in the final.

You can see full results from this year's competition HERE.