Peter White reports:
This year's tournament was especially well attended undoubtedly making for one of the best Turnbull Trophies to date. Over twenty pairs from nine schools entered. There were two pools; pool A was played at Westway on the 25th of November and pool B was played at Eton on the 2nd December.
Pool A
This pool had seven pairs from St Olave's, Lancing and Westway. This was a particulary strong group with many pairs being potential finalists; but as ever, only two pairs were able to qualify. The pool was played with two-game matches so that a pair could win either 2-0 or draw 1-1. The top two pairs with the most points (1 point per game) would qualify for the quarter-final stage. First seeds of Peter White and James Rees won all their games achieving maximum points, with Will and Tom Betts winning the most points from the dominating Olavian pair. As first place was decided early on, the battle for second place began. Anthony Theodossi and Matt Le Fleur came through, defeating the Lancing and Westway pairs to qualify for the last place for the quarter-final draw. There were many great, exciting matches, within this pool. The Olavian pairs did well to triumph in such a strong pool.
Qualifiers from pool A
1st P White & J Rees (St Olave's)
2nd A Theodossi & M Le Fleur (St Olave's)
Pools B, C & D
These pools were run by Sanjaya Ranashinge at Eton College on Sunday 2nd December, after the ladder that had taken place in the morning. This pool was split into three groups with Old Boys and school boys from Aldenham, Westminster, Westway, Lancing, St Olave's, Emanuel, RGS High Wycombe, City of London and Berkhamsted Collegiate school. All groups ran smoothly thanks to Sanjaya who did an excellent job. Again, each pair played each other in a two game match. This time each game was worth half a point. In this pool the top two pairs in each group would qualify so that the knock out stage would consist of a quarter-final/semi-final and a final. The day provided plenty of Fives - many players also took part in the EFA Ladder in the morning. The qualifiers from pool B-D are as follows:
Pool B-D Results
1st - Andrew Joyce and Doug Foster (Berkhamsted)
4th - Laurie Brock and Peter Kennedy (Westminster)
5th - Cameron Grant and Josh Rose (Aldenham)
These pairs will now join the Olavian qualifiers from Pool A in the final
Despite the snow and illness/injuries five of the eight qualifying pairs arrived at Eton on 6th April from Aldenham, Berkhamsted, Westminster and two from St. Olave's.
The finalists were all placed in one pool and played a two game match against each pair. The Aldenham pair of Cameron Grant and Josh Rose produced an early shock taking the first game from the Olavian pair of James Rees and Peter White after being 11-3 down. James and Peter recovered their composure for the second game to draw the match and then remain undefeated to reach the final. The Berkhamsted pair of Andrew Joyce, the defending champion, and Doug Foster cruised through the pool winning the group. All the matches were closely fought and after eight games each a few players were quite happy that they did not have to contest the final.
James and Peter got off to a flying start in the final going 8-0 up on the first hand. Andrew and Doug fought back but the deficit was too much and the Olavian pair won 12-7. The next two games were quite different with the Berkhamsted pair both using their experience to keep Peter out of the game and pressurise James on the top step to win both comfortably 12-4 and 12-6. In the fourth Peter started to impose himself again and reduced the pressure on James. Although the Olavian pair were 11-6 up they could not clinch the final point as the Berkhamsted pair did their best to win in four games. The game went all the way to 13-13 before the Olavian pair finally took one of their many game points. This did not deflate the Berkhamsted pair and they stormed into a 9-0 lead in the final game and never let their advantage slip to win 12-5 and deservedly win the Graham Turnbull Trophy.
Preliminary Pool Matches
Pool A - Westway 25th November 2007
1st - P White & J Rees (St Olave's)
2nd - A Theodossi & M Le Fleur (St Olave's)
Pool B - Eton 2nd December 2007
Group 1
1st - J Rose & C Grant (Aldenham)
2nd - A Field & A Peppiatt (Westway)
Group 2
1st - D Foster & J Lowe (Berkhamsted)
2nd - H Wiseman & J Chadwick (Emanuel)
Group 3
1st - M Herring & A Joyce (Berkhamsted)
2nd - G Coren & L Brock (Westminster)
Group Finals - Eton April 2008
1st - A Joyce & D Foster (Berkhamsted)
2nd - J Rees & P White (St Olaves)
3rd - M Bassot & A Theodossi (St Olaves)
4th - L Brock & P Kennedy (Westminster)
5th - C Grant & J Rose (Aldenham)
Final
A Joyce & D Foster beat J Rees & P White 3-2 (7-12, 12-4, 12-6, 13-14, 12-5)