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Eton Fives
This year’s fives squad contained some very talented players,
especially at the top of the school – including, of course, the 2015
national U12 champions.The Removes lacked strength in depth but
several of them began to show real promise quite early in the season.
Similarly amongst the 2nd and 3rdYears there was a small but
enthusiastic group who committed themselves to regular practice.
With genuine ability apparent in each year-group, we arranged an
ambitious fixture list that included four more tournaments than
usual, one of which was the inaugural national competition for
U11s.This new event was not only a success in itself, but also helped
streamline the U12 tournament, as players could not enter both.
In the Michaelmas Term our top three pairs
played in the REFCA U14Tournament
and, without an Eton presence,
Edward
Bingham
and
Mark Spiridonov
cruised
through to emerge as winners.The same six
boys represented us in the annual 3-Pairs
tournament in the last week of term. Despite a
strong challenge from Sunningdale, whose 2nd
pair just got the better of
TomCapstick-Dale
and
Joseph Menell
, Summer Fields retained
the title (the fourth time in five years), thanks
to an outstanding 15-12 victory for
Patrick
Murray
and
Beau Swallow
. In November two
keen U12 pairs participated in a national U13
competition:
Henry Daly
and
Sebastian Salata
did very well to finish 7th out of 28 pairs.
The ‘club’ fixtures, where we try to provide
balanced opposition for schools where fives is
less well developed, gave the usual opportunity
for younger boys to gain valuable experience.
The ‘proper matches’ (shown in bold in the
results summary below) involved our top pairs,
and we had some encouraging results. If Eton
had been without Old Summerfieldians Alfred
Backhouse and Ben Porter, and our pairs had
thus each shuffled down a pair, we would
almost certainly have won both those contests
convincingly.Although we were second best at
Highgate, two pairs came very close to victory,
and it was satisfying to get revenge in the
return match at Eton. In each age-group the
1st and 2nd pairs produced some impressive
performances and so we were optimistic
about the Marsh Insurance National Schools
Championships.
The U13 tournament was held on a very cold
day in February.The regulations barred the top
pairs from the previous year’s U12 tournament
from entry and so we were unable to include
our 2015 champions. Menell & Capstick-Dale
did well to reach the semi-finals but were
disappointed not to find their best form against
a strong St Olave’s pair, who went on to take
the trophy. Murray and Swallow had a good day
and fulfilled expectations, whilst the other two
pairs also performed very respectably.
A place in the U11 finals looked a likely bet
for
Sebastian Corso
and
Augustus Stanhope
,
having previously beaten the seeded pairs
from Berkhamsted and Ludgrove in school
matches but, after easy victories in the early
stages of the competition, they encountered
a very promising Berkhamsted 3rd pair in the
quarter-finals and found it difficult to play with
any of their usual consistency. Our boys came
back from behind to equalise in the second
game but continued to struggle for consistency
and lost 9-12 in the deciding game.With
Rory McNair
ill,
George Laing
was partnered
at 2nd pair by
Finley Smith
, and they were
unfortunate to meet a strong Ludgrove 1st pair.
The other SF entrants all benefited from the
experience, especially the four U10s who took
part;
Api Brown,Tate Cecil, Harry Nell
and
Harry Nicholl
could all develop into strong
contenders in future tournaments.
With the separate competition for U11s,
the U12 event was less manic! Pleasingly, all
four SF pairs qualified for the main tournament
following the pool stages – an especially
notable achievement by the novice 4th pair,
Oliver Crawford
and
Florian Hull
, who made
huge improvements as the day progressed.Their
highlight was defeating HighWycombe 2 in the
2nd round (12-10) – but unfortunately they
then met the eventual champions, Sunningdale
1.
Teddy Barlow
and
Rigby Swarovski Adams
were knocked out in the 2nd round but then
went on to win Plate B, beating Highgate
Results
Opposition
Result
Points
Us Them
Oakham (a)
W 2
0
Eton U14 (a)
L
2
4
Highgate (a)
L
½ 4½
Berkhamsted (a)
W 4
2
St Bartholomew’s (a)
D 1½ 1½
Stowe U15 (h)
W 2
0
Ludgrove (a)
W 4
3
Harrow U15 (a)
W 2½ ½
St Bartholomew’s (h)
W 2
0
Highgate U12 (at Eton) W 4
3
Berkhamsted U13 (a)
W
3
0
Berkhamsted U11 (a)
L
1
5
Ludgrove U11 (at Eton)
W 2
1
Stowe (a)
W 3
0
Eton U14 (a)
L
1
3
“The climax of the
season is always
the Prep Schools
Tournament”
S u m m e r F i e l d s
2 0 1 5 – 2 0 1 6
105