Dominique Redmond reports:
This year's mixed tournament took place at Eton, on the 17th April 2005. All entries arrived on time with no withdrawals from the large draw. There were a total of twenty pairs, split into four pools of five pairs with the top two pairs going through from each pool. As is now the case each year, the 'Wiseman rule' was in place to stop male domination on the top step by only allowing the man to remain in the serving position for one rally.
Pool stages
Again Howard had made the right placement of pairs in each group in which all games were really close, going to the wire with impressive play from the ladies and gentlemen. This year's pool format was slightly different - there were 4 pools with the top two pairs going to play a quarter-final, with an additional losing quarter-finalists' plate, and also 3rd, 4th and 5th position plate which led to several pools of very even matches. This format worked extremely well!
Pool A
1) C & C Cooley 2) P Neal & P Cohen
Pool B
1) K Hoskins & G Hoskins 2) K White & S White
Pool C
1) T Dunbar & P Dunbar 2) A Lumbard & D Mew
Pool D
1) H Wiseman & D Redmond 2) M Herring & J Browning
Quarter-Finals
While the quarter-finals were taking place, all the other courts were busy with match after match from the 3rd, 4th and 5th position plate competitions. All the quarter-final matches were very close with excellent play from all players.
C Cooley & C Cooley bt A Lumbard & D Mew 15-5
K Hoskins & G Hoskins bt M Herring & J Browning 15-9
T Dunbar & P Dunbar bt P Neal & P Cohen 15-9
H Wiseman & D Redmond bt K White & S White 15-11
Semi-final
All semi-finals were best of three games. Both semi-finals were extremely close with the losing team missing out narrowly for a place in the final.
T Dunbar & P Dunbar bt H Wiseman & D Redmond 2-1 (12-7, 9-12, 12-7)
C Cooley & C Cooley bt K Hoskins & G Hoskins 2-0 (12-5, 12-9)
Final
The main draw final was very close, but the defending champions were too strong at the end of the day. The brother and sister partnership defeated the mother and son partnership! How often do we get to say something like that in sport?
C Cooley & C Cooley bt T Dunbar & P Dunbar 2-0 (12-8, 12-4)
Plates
The quarter-final plate was won by K White & S White.
3rd position plate won by T Mackay & A Moore
4th position plate won by E Rymarz & S Fautly
5th position plate won by A Jones & H Bohgal
This year's entry demonstrated representation by a particularly wide range of clubs, as well as returning various ladies to the game. We had players from Norwich School/Old Ipwichians, St. Olaves/ Old Olavians, Lancing College/Lancing Old Boys, Berkhamsted, Westminster, Westway, Harrow Ladies and Old Harrovians. Let's hope that next year's competition attracts even more dormant players to return to the game and that there is an even wider representation of schools and clubs. Thank you to all who took part in this year's event.