Kinnaird Cup and Ladies Championships Semi-Finals
31/03/25: The semi-finals of the Kinnaird Cup and Ladies Championships in association with Advanta Wealth took place at Eton yesterday, with the top two seeds in each competition once again making it through to the finals.
The same two pairs have been at the top of the ladies game for a long time now and for the eighth time in nine years, the final will see Karen Hird & Charlotta Cooley - the champions since 2013 - take on perennial challengers Emily Scoones & Ashley Lumbard. Karen & Charlotta had a routine semi-final win against young Salopians Lizze Ware & Emma Graham, who had produced an excellent quarter-final win to make it to the last four and who have the potential to become future challengers if they keep playing and keep improving. Ashley & Emily had the tougher path to the final, having to work hard to overcome former champion Dom Redmond and partner Elana Garfield-Osen in four games, a tense 15-13 third game win proving decisive after the first two games had been shared.
The narrative of the 2025 Kinnaird - not least in the national and international press - has been building up to a third successive final between thirteen times champions Seb Cooley & Tom Dunbar and the pair that dethroned them in 2024, Riki Houlden & Hugo Young. Neither pair had things their own way at Eton yesterday, as the third and fourth seeded pairs both played some excellent Fives and made the top two work hard for their place in the final.
Tom & Seb were up against Sunil Tailor & Charles Plummer and the underdogs got into the match straight away, winning 8 points in the first game. When Tom & Seb won the second game to 2, it looked as though it would be a straightforward victory. The Millhillian pair had other ideas, though, and got some real momentum going in the third, taking the initiative and dominating on court and on the scoreboard to win to 3. Seb at times played like a man who looked as though he had just spent an exhausting week organising the National Schools' Championships (a Herculean task). At other times, however, he looked like a man with thirteen Kinnaird wins under his belt and the fourth game contained plenty such moments as he and Tom steadied the ship and established an early lead before closing things out comfortably.
The other semi-final was taking rather longer to complete with the first game alone taking 80 minutes. This pitted Riki & Hugo - for the second year in succession at this stage of the competition - against former champions James Toop & Matt Wiseman and for the majority of the first game it looked as though the Olavians were going to go 1-0 ahead as they chiselled out an 11-7 lead. Some tenacious defence and excellent gameball cutting kept the Westminster pair in the game, however, and they levelled at 11-11. Again Matt & James got to foot down first at 13-12 and again Riki & Hugo were able to stay in the game long enough to level and then - perhaps inevitably - win the final point at the first time of asking. The second game was more straightforwardly in Riki & Hugo's favour as they won to 6, but the third once again turned into a marathon, not helped by Hugo having trouble with his serving at various points, removing any fluency from the game and preventing either pair from establishing any real momentum. As in the first game, it was Matt & James who got in front first with a 6-3 lead. This time the Westminster fightback came earlier in the game and at 10-8 ahead they were only two points from victory. The ability of Matt & James to dig in and fight for every rally and every point is legendary, though, and it was no surprise to anyone that they pulled it back to 10-10, saved a match point at 13-14 and then found the couple of winning rallies that took the game 15-14 and gave them hope of a spectacular comeback (and a very late finish!). It wasn't to be, however, as Riki & Hugo regrouped well and with Hugo's serving woes easing, they were able to find a better rhythm and tempo, which took them to 12-7 and wrapped up the win shortly before the match hit the four hour mark.
The two finals will both be played next Sunday afternoon at Berkhamsted Prep School, starting at 2:30pm. All spectators are welcome!
Kinnaird Cup Semi-Finals
S.Cooley & T.Dunbar beat S.Tailor & C.Plummer 3-1 (12-8, 12-2, 3-12, 12-5)
R.Houlden & H.Young beat J.Toop & M.Wiseman 3-1 (14-13, 12-6, 14-15, 12-7)
Ladies Championships Semi-Finals
K.Hird & C.Cooley beat L.Ware & E.Graham 3-0 (12-1, 12-2, 12-3)
A.Lumbard & E.Scoones beat D.Redmond & E.Garfield-Osen 3-1 (12-3, 7-12, 15-13, 12-5)
