Andrew Rennie reports:
18/09/17: Sunday 10th September saw the was the inaugural tournament where an Old Millhillian plays with a current pupil at the school. The tournament was named ‘The Summers Cup’ after Mr Andrew Summers, who had the pleasure of forming the OM Fives Club in the 1960s.
The tournament was a great success with around 30 people attending, 16 of whom played, with some great company, everyone enjoying some drinks and food while watching an extremely high quality final. OM players taking part included Chris Vincent, Oliver Sander, Ben Balcombe, Hal Gibson-Leitao, Lukas Vanhaesebroeck, Henry Webster, Sunil Tailor, and Gareth Kong. Matches in the group stages and semi-finals were 20 minutes and the final was then one full set to 12.
The tournament was split into two groups of 4 pairs. Group one winners were Hal Gibson-Leitao (OM) and Iain Kidd, narrowly winning the group beating Ben Balcombe (OM) and Alex Grubb 8 – 7, who took the runner up position. Group 2 was filled with some very close matches, with current U6th Charlie Plummer and recent leaver Henry Webster taking the top spot, with Sunil Tailor and Nick Jenkins coming second.
The two semi-finals were very good matches even if the scoreline doesn’t show it. The group 2 runners up (Sunil and Nick) caused a slight upset knocking out the group 1 winners (Hal and Iain) in the first semi-final 5 -2 to take the first spot in the final. In the second semi-final, Henry and Charlie were victorious, beating Ben and Alex 12-4.
The final was set to be a good one, and a repeat of what was a very close group match earlier in the day. Sunil and Nick got off to a very strong start, leading the way early on. With some outstanding play from Henry Webster, solidly backed up by Charlie Plummer, they managed to slowly come back and eventually take the win 12-6 to become the first ever winners of the Summers Cup. A great day for all with some very good fives. The date has already been set for next year on Sunday 9th September!