Aberconway Cup: Six In A Row For The Wisemans

Aberconway Cup: Six In A Row For The Wisemans

20/04/26: An all-time record entry of 20 pairs including several debutants took part in Sunday's Aberconway Cup in association with Advanta Wealth at Eton.

With injury, unavailability and the passage of time preventing some long-standing Aberconway pairings from playing this year, it was a delight to see an influx of new faces in this year's tournament including lots of young sons and daughters and a group of parents also relatively new to the game, with Charterhouse, Ipswich and the US branch of the Cooley family doing sterling work in providing multiple new pairings.

There were some constants, though, with Howard & Gwydion Wiseman back again and looking to extend their recent dominance in the competition and two players surviving from the first ever Aberconway Cup back in 1991, Ipswichians Tim Gregory and Gareth Hoskins, now playing with their children rather than their fathers.

With a late cry off and a quick rejig of the draw taken care of, the morning group phase got underway with five groups of four pairs. The top seeds in each group progressed relatively comfortably, but there were a couple of fierce contests to take the runners-up spot in each group that would guarantee progress to the knockout stages. Notable matches were the one between the two players who were runners-up in the 2004 Kinnaird Cup final, James Toop and son William defeating Chris Cooley and father John 15-12 in the big Olavian Group D grudge match and Brigands Gary & Bertie Marshall-Rice defeating Gideon Osen and daughter Elana 15-14 in a Group C thriller (a taste of things to come later on!). Another debutant pairing - the Eton/Ludgrove duo Tom & Monty Raynsford - also put in a good showing, defeating Alex & Grace Knight in a tight match to take second place in Group A, which finished some time after all the other groups were done and dusted, mainly thanks to the Wisemans' love of a long rally.

At this stage, the three Cooley pairings (Chris & John and Seb and Charlotta playing with two of Chris's children, Elliott and Corinne) withdrew gracefully to allow most of them to catch an afternoon flight from Heathrow back to the States while everyone else moved on to either the main quarter-finals or the Mike Fenn Plate, with the two group runners-up play-offs deciding the last couple of slots in each. The Toops defeated the Raynsfords and the godfather/godson pairing of Justin Adie & Will Tate - pushing the eligibility rules but playing some excellent Fives - sent the Marshall-Rices into the plate.

The top three seeded pairs continued their comfortable progress through the quarter-finals, the Wisemans ending the Adie/Tate run, Gareth & Tom Hoskins easing past Stuart & Dylan Clarke and Tom & David McCahon winners in a splendid match against the Toops. The fourth quarter-final was one of the matches of the day, as the fourth-seeded Gregorys - fresh from an impressive run at the Mixed last weekend - just managed to hold off the Leaches 15-13 in a titanic battle. The Gregorys' reward for their win was a tough semi-final against the formidable Wisemans, which proved to be a challenge too far, while North Oxford's Gareth & Tom Hoskins produced a controlled and convincing display to defeat the McCahons in what had looked on paper to be a 50/50 semi-final. This meant that Gareth Hoskins - 35 years after his first appearance in the Aberconway Cup and semi-final appearances in 1991, 1993 and 1995 - finally reached his first final, giving Tom the family bragging rights over his granddad. They struggled to keep up with the pace of the Wisemans in the first game of the final, losing to 2, but put in a stronger performance in the second game, which featured some excellent rallies and creative shotmaking from all four players. The Wisemans always had the edge, however, and were never in any danger of losing, taking the second game to 7 to extend their winning run to six in a row.

Further down the placings list, the McCahons pipped the Gregorys for third place and the Adie/Tate pairing saw off the Leaches and the Clarkes to win the quarter-finalists plate.

The rest of the field, meanwhile - minus those already halfway over the Atlantic - had their sights on the Mike Fenn Plate, won in previous years by both of the 2026 main competition finalists as well as a host of other distinguished Fives names. Quarter-final defeats meant that the three Ipswichian year 7 boys playing with dads new to the game themselves this year headed into Plate B alongside the Lancing Steeles, veterans and serial winners of the Aberconway Cup plates, who maintained their iron grip on Plate B for the third year in a row. It was fantastic to see the Ipswich pairs taking part and we very much hope to see them back again next year, a year older and more experienced and ready to move up the rankings.

This left four pairs to fight it out for the Plate trophy: the first semi-final was a nailbiting all-Brigands/Charterhouse affair, with the Marshall-Rices winning their second sudden death encounter of the day against the Knights. The other semi-final was also close, the extra experience of the Osen father & daughter duo winning the day against the Raynsfords and setting up a final that was a repeat of the morning's 15-14 group game. Yet again there was nothing to separate the pairs, matching each other point for point up to 10-10 before a burst of three points gave the Marshall-Rices the edge. There was still work to do and the Osens got it back to 13-14 but Gary & Bertie were able to find the winning rally for their third clutch win of the day to deny Gideon his first ever Fives silverware (we're not counting the Aldenham 12-0 cup) and get their hands on the Mike Fenn plate at the first attempt.

Our thanks go to Eton for hosting the competition, to Advanta Wealth for their continued sponsorship and to all of the pairs who came and played and made it such an enjoyable day.

Play-Offs

J Adie & W Tate beat G & B Marshall-Rice 12-4

J & W Toop beat T & M Raynsford 12-4

Quarter-Finals

H & G Wiseman beat J Adie & W Tate 15-5

T & N Gregory beat T Leach & J Michalski-Leach 15-13

G & T Hoskins beat S & D Clarke 15-2

D & T McCahon beat J & W Toop 15-10

Semi-Finals

H & G Wiseman beat T & N Gregory 2-0 (12-7, 12-5)

G & T Hoskins beat D & T McCahon 2-0 (12-9, 12-3)

Final