Gwydion Wiseman reports:
14/10/22: This year’s Summers Cup at Mill Hill was a very high standard tournament featuring eight pairs of current pupils partnering Old Millhillians.
There was a wide range of experience in the tournament, ranging from top Division 1 Old Millhillians to top senior school boys and 4th formers who had only been playing for a few weeks. This made the tournament a really good experience for all involved.
We started with two groups of four pairs where each pair in each group played all other pairs in their groups to determine rank 1, 2, 3 and 4 within each group. This gave the pupils an opportunity to get used to the faster paced game and the Old Millhillians to knock off some rust. After some very close games, we had our rankings of each group.
We then went through to the knock out stage where the games were close with never more than three points between the two pairs.
Quarter Finals
Edgar G & Jack W beat Billy B & Harris M
Sam B & Justin F beat James G & Oli S
Seb D & Andrew beat Sadie B & Hal GL
Charlie G & Jake T beat Milton GS & Gwydion W
The pairs that won this last round then went through to the semi finals where one of the games had to be decided at sudden death (next point wins), whilst the other pairs entered the plate competition.
Semi-Finals
Edgar G & Jack W beat Seb D & Andrew
Sam B & Justin F beat Charlie G & Jake T
Plate Semi-Finals
Milton GS & Gwydion W beat Billy B & Harris M
James G & Oli S beat Sadie B & Hal GL
We then had the final of the main competition and the final of the plate competition set! It was a close competition in both finals and the improvement of all pairs throughout the day was evident.
In the plate, Oli and James where significant favourites because they had already beaten Milton and Gwydion earlier on in the day, but this was before the significant improvement of the 4th former throughout the day and Milton and Gwydion took an early lead in the game going 7-3 up. Oli and James however, persevered and were able to slowly claw themselves back to a 12-8 victory.
In the main final, on paper, Edgar and Jack were favourites in the final after having stormed their group and not losing a set all day, but having been ahead for much of the final, Sam and Justin were able to hold them off from winning. When the score then reached 11-11, they had to play through to 13. Sam and Justin were able to save various match points to then be the victors 13-12 after the epic final.