Wiseman & Sathiyamoorthy Win The Under 25s
21/09/26: Gwydion Wiseman & Prajeeth Sathiyamoorthy finally got their hands on the winners' trophy at the U25s at Eton on Sunday, winning the final against Harrovians Fred Prickett & Phoenix Ashworth.
A bumper entry of 24 pairs took part in this year's tournament, some consolation for not having enough pairs to run a meaningful women's competition this year.
There was representation from a wide range of schools and clubs and an equally wide range of experience and ability, all of which made for an extremely enjoyable day of Fives.
The first part of the tournament divided the 24 pairs into four groups of six, with the top two from each group moving into the quarter-finals, the 3rds and 4ths into Plate A and the 5ths and 6ths into Plate B. The top seeds in each group qualified with relative ease but below them the battle for the other qualifying slots was fierce. Group A had a very Olavian feel to it, top seeds and 2025 finalists Wiseman & Sathiyamoorthy qualifying ahead of Luke Whitnall & Krivi Bhavsar, with Aryan Sumanan & Armand Healy in third. Behind them there was a threeway tie decided by points difference and a head to head result, Shrewsbury School's Daniil Metelskiy & Joshua Hollinshead pipping the Ipswich/Shrewsbury girls alliance of Betsy Laws & Sienna Earles and the Berkhamsted club's James Wheale & Ashley Hornsey.
Last year's winner Fred Prickett had a new partner this year with Isaac Weaver unavailable and he and fellow Harrovian Phoenix Ashworth cruised through at the head of Group B, with the runner-up spot equally comfortably secured by the Oxford town & gown pairing of Tom Hoskins & Tommy Farmer. Cambridge's Mark Ludden & Tom Salter impressed without managing to find a win and were joined in Plate B by Ipswich School's Max Williams & Guy Peters, the two plate A slots going to the Carthusian/Reptonian duo Bertie Marshall-Rice & Henry Barton-Smith (a pair designed to make the organiser have to use a smaller font on the scoresheet) and Old Elizabethans Indy Datta & Dinuk Dissanayake.
Another Olavian pair topped Group C, Aadi Agarwal teaming up with schoolboy Aayan Shetty, with the rest of the group producing the hardest fought series of matches to determine the rest of the finishing order. Repton's Tom Gilbody & Freddie Tebbs started strongly with a fine victory over Shrewsbury's Rufus Darke & Nathaniel Hammond, who then narrowly survived a near ambush by the much-improved Eton pair of Constantine Nur Shah & Ryan H'Ng. Second place was eventually seized, though, by the former Cambridge first pair of Lewis Drummond & Jamie Levinson, who defeated Freddie & Tom 12-10 to make it through to the quarter-finals. The Oxford/Westminster pairing of Pranav Shah & Anthony Adamson joined the unlucky Etonians in Plate B while the Repton & Shrewsbury pairs headed into Plate A.
The final group featured current St.Olave's first pair Henry Etherington & Oscar Rushton, and they also came through in first place, although they were pushed quite hard by another ex-Cambridge pair as Theo Seely & Freddie Kottler made a second successive U25 quarter-final. The scratch Aldenham/Ipswich pairing of Frankie Manderson-Harkin & Noah Urmston improved game by game to take third place in the group ahead of dangerous Elizabethans Muhammad Hurzuk & Zayn Phoplankar. The two younger pairs in the group, Shrewsbury's George Montaldo & Charlie Clarke and Ipswich's Millie Hodgkinson & Rebecca Kelly, gained valuable experience to take into the afternoon Plate B.
With the field now divided into three mini-tournament of eight pairs, the format turned to knockout matches. The first round of Plate B saw Ludden & Salter open their account with a 12-11 win over Montaldo & Clarke as well as a convincing win for Earles & Laws against Adamson & Shah. Neither could follow up with a semi-final win, however, a pair of hardfought 12-10 wins taking Williams & Peters through against the girls and H'Ng & Nur Shah through against Ludden & Salter, the Ipswich boys finishing things off with a 12-5 win in the final. The four first round losers took to Plate C, where Adamson & Shah finally found their form to finish the day with a couple of wins over Hodgkinson & Kelly then Montaldo & Clarke.
There were plenty of close matches in Plate A as well, although Healy & Sumanan did a bit of a disappearing act to give Hammond & Darke a first round bye. The other Shrewsbury pair of Metelskiy & Hollinshead pushed Gilbody & Tebbs hard with Reptonian hopes of a Plate A win then hitting the buffers in the semi-final against an inspired Manderson-Harkin & Urmston. In the other half of the draw, Barton-Smith & Marshall-Rice were also hitting their stride nicely, defeating Hurzuk & Phoplankar then Darke & Hammond before the two form pairs then played one of the matches of the day in the final, which eventually went 12-11 to Henry & Bertie after several rounds of gameball for both pairs.
The main competition quarter-finals gave the four group runners-up a chance to defeat one of the group winners in a game to 15, but none of them were able to make much of an impression. Drummond & Levinson fought hard for their 5 points against Wiseman & Sathiyamoorthy; Whitnall & Bhavsar fell at this stage for the second year in a row (their time will come...) against Agarwal & Shetty; Seely & Kottler gave their all in the battle of the Harrovians but couldn't find a way past Prickett & Ashworth. The other quarter-final looked like it might be closer, but Etherington & Rushton got off to a strong start against Farmer & Hoskins. The scratch pairing had a lot to do at 5-10 down but were beginning to fight back when their challenge was abruptly and unfortunately ended by a nasty-looking ankle injury to Tom, twisting to retrieve a shot from out the back of the court.
Henry & Oscar were never able to get going in the semi-final against Gwydion & Prajeeth and the top seeds continued their serene passage into the final. The other semi-final produced probably the game of the day as Aadi & Aayan took on Phoenix & Fred. This was a terrific game with some fantastic rallies but for a large part of the match it looked as the Olavian pair were going to claim the win; they got to 10-6 ahead before the tide finally turned the way of the Harrovians who began to take control of the set piece and with it the scoreboard, levelling the scores and then nosing in front just at the right time to clinch the match 15-13.
The contrast between the two semis meant that Gwydion & Prajeeth went into the final much the fresher pair; Phoenix - a very fine player and a schools champion in 2022 - doesn't have the same amount of senior tournament and recent match experience of the other three and while he showed plenty of examples of what he is capable of, the greater freshness and consistency of Gwydion & Prajeeth allowed them to weather an early Harrovian storm in both games of the final, going away from 3-6 in the first and 2-4 down in the second to win both games to 6 to claim the title. This was a first win in the competition for both of them in their third final each, having been runners-up together 12 months ago and both having partnered Jack Pemberton to the final in previous seasons. It will also be their last U25 win as a pair, as Prajeeth will no longer be eligible next year.
As always, my thanks go to Ryan Perrie and Eton for hosting the tournament and to everyone who came and played and made it such an enjoyable day.
Quarter-Finals
G.Wiseman & P.Sathiyamoorthy beat J.Levinson & L.Drummond 15-5
H.Etherington & O.Rushton beat T.Farmer & T.Hoskins 10-5 ret
A.Agarwal & A.Shetty beat L.Whitnall & K.Bhavsar 15-5
P.Ashworth & F.Prickett beat T.Seely & F.Kottler 15-5
Semi-Finals
G.Wiseman & P.Sathiyamoorthy beat H.Etherington & O.Rushton 15-2
P.Ashworth & F.Prickett beat A.Agarwal & A.Shetty 15-13
Final
G.Wiseman & P.Sathiyamoorthy beat P.Ashworth & F.Prickett 2-0 (12-6, 12-6)
Quarter-Finalists Plate
J.Levinson & L.Drummond beat T.Seely & F.Kottler 2-0 (12-9, 14-11)
Plate A
Quarter-Finals
R.Darke & N.Hammond beat A.Healy & A.Sumanan scr
H.Barton-Smith & B.Marshall-Rice beat M.Hurzuk & Z.Phoplankar 12-6
T.Gilbody & F.Tebbs beat D.Metelskiy & J.Hollinshead 12-9
F.Manderson-Harkin & N.Urmston beat I.Datta & D.Dissanayake 12-7
Semi-Finals
H.Barton-Smith & B.Marshall-Rice beat R.Darke & N.Hammond 12-6
F.Manderson-Harkin & N.Urmston beat T.Gilbody & F.Tebbs 12-2
Final
H.Barton-Smith & B.Marshall-Rice beat F.Manderson-Harkin & N.Urmston 12-11
3rd/4th
R.Darke & N.Hammond beat T.Gilbody & F.Tebbs 12-10
Plate A2
Semi-Finals
M.Hurzuk & Z.Phoplankar beat A.Healy & A.Sumanan scr
D.Metelskiy & J.Hollinshead beat I.Datta & D.Dissanayake 12-11
Final
M.Hurzuk & Z.Phoplankar beat D.Metelskiy & J.Hollinshead 12-8
Plate B
Quarter-Finals
B.Laws & S.Earles beat P.Shah & A.Adamson 12-1
M.Williams & G.Peters beat M.Hodgkinson & R.Kelly 12-3
R.H'Ng & C.Nur Shah beat J.Wheale & A.Hornsey 12-9
M.Ludden & T.Salter beat G.Montaldo & C.Clarke 12-11
Semi-Finals
M.Williams & G.Peters beat B.Laws & S.Earles 12-10
R.H'Ng & C.Nur Shah beat M.Ludden & T.Salter 12-10
Final
M.Williams & G.Peters beat R.H'Ng & C.Nur Shah 12-5
3rd/4th
B.Laws & S.Earles beat M.Ludden & T.Salter 12-7
Plate C
Semi-Finals
P.Shah & A.Adamson beat M.Hodgkinson & R.Kelly 12-6
G.Montaldo & C.Clarke beat J.Wheale & A.Hornsey 12-3
Final
P.Shah & A.Adamson beat G.Montaldo & C.Clarke 12-6
