Mark Herring reports:
After the usual rush of entries on the Thursday and Friday the London tournament consited of thirty-six pairs. There were twelve pairs that entered the main tournament; as usual the standard was still very high even without a few of the usual big name players. Most arrived on time at Highgate for a prompt start. The unusual difference being this year that there was no rain!
Main Tournament
Pools
There were two pools of six with the top four going through to the quarter-finals. The format this year was each match consisted of two games with a draw being possible and therefore a point each.There were no real surprises in Pool A with the expected four going through, although there were nearly a few surprises with Sanderson and Cohen almost taking the spoils away from Mason and Varma but narrowly missing out in both games. The remaining matches were closely fought but results went the way of the seeds. Pool B on the other hand was slightly different. Toop and C.Cooley dropping games against H.Wiseman and Sorrell and against the Taylor brothers. This made the draw more interesting with Wiseman and Sorrell going through as one and Toop and Cooley in second.
Quarter-Finals
Sadly with two pairs dropping out through injury one quarter-final became a semi-final but best of five games instead of three. The benefactors were Wiseman/Sorrell and Sanderson/Cohen. The other quarter-finals were Mason/Varma against the Oxford pair Patel/O'Callaghan and Toop/Cooley versus Herring/Mew, both scores being 2-0 and comfortabley wins for the top seeds.
Semi-finals
With Wiseman/Sorrell beating Sanderson/Cohen in three very close games, all being within three points, they were safely through to the final. The other semi-final was a superbly fought match between four top quality players. Toop and Cooley maybe not playing their best Fives on the Saturday had a big challenge if they were to get to the final. With no surprise they upped their game and fought hard to scrape a 2-1 win over Mason and his new partner in Varma. The games were exciting and had a high tempo of Fives as would have been expected. A superb spectacle to watch on the cold and sadly now raining Sunday afternoon.
Final
With Wiseman and Sorrell taking a game off their opponents at the Pools stage the final was surely going to be tight and hard fought. The first game was with Toop/Cooley, 11-4 up the score soon got closer to 11-9 until Toop took control and finished off the first game in style. Sadly the second game was not quite the same as Chris and James were on top form and seemed to find a winner from most of their shots and took the second to love. 2-0 up and looking good it was an uphill task for Howard and Will. Chris and James stormed home 12-5 in the third and yet again an Olavian pair took home the silverware.
Festival
With twenty-four pairs entering the format was easy. There were two pools of twelve with each match being best of one game to twelve points. There was a large mixture of old, young, girls, boys and a mix of experienced players and some making their Fives debut. In both pools there was superb Fives played with the top eight in each progressing to the second round, the remaining eight being placed in the Festival Plate.The second round games were played on the Sunday and with no real surprises the strongest eight reached the quarter-finals. It was a strong line up with Lancing, St Olave's and Westminster pairs looking in good form. Westminster (Peterson and Krespi) beat the improving Lancing pair (Betts and Gough), which was the best quality game in the quarter-finals with some exciting and top quality shots being played throughout. In the other quarter-finals Kailey/Warren lost to Olavians Michaels/Sanders; the Malik brothers (from Westway) lost to Redmond and Williams; and Hyett/Smith beat the Berkhamsted pair Squires and Iacoponi.
The semi-finals also went the way of the seeds and stronger players Westminster beat Hyett and Smith and Olave's beat Redmond and Williams.
The final
was therefore between Westminster Krespi/Peterson and Olave's Saunders/Michaels. The games were close with scores 12-7, 7-12, 12-7 in favour of Westminster. The games were played at an unbelievable pace and all players showed off their power and finesse at some point. With Howard losing the main tournament final his school pair also just lost in the Festival final being beaten by his younger brother (Matt's) Westminster pair who look promising and could be a major threat in the school n/nationals in March.
Plate Final
Won by Brock and Brott (Westminster)