Shrewsbury Pip Ipswich In Thrilling Turnbull Final
08/12/25: Thirty pairs from thirteen different schools took part in a fantastic Turnbull Trophy in assocation with Advanta Wealth which ended with Shrewsbury retaining the title against Ipswich by the slenderest of margins.
The total number of pairs was only slightly down on last year's bumper entry and the most pleasing aspect was an increase in the number of schools represented, up from nine to thirteen this year with pairs taking part from Shrewsbury, Ipswich, St.Olave's, Westminster, Eton, Repton, Highgate, Charterhouse, QE Barnet, St.Bart's, Lancing, KES Birmingham and Marlborough.
The first phase of the competition saw six groups of five pairs battling it out for places in the round of sixteen. Conditions were tricky, with increasingly wet walls and the ball sliding to the back left, although thankfully the Eton courts remained dry underfoot. Inexperienced and experienced players alike were finding things challenging and the ability to adapt played a key role in many of the group matches.
The Turnbull - with almost entirely new pairings and little form to go on in some cases - is a notoriously difficult competition to predict, but while there were plenty of close and exciting matches in the group stages, there were no major shocks until virtually the very last match in Group C as Eton 1 (Will Ponsonby & Alex Burford) ambushed the more fancied St.Olave's 1 (Prajeeth Sathiyamoorthy & Oscar Rushton) with some textbook wet court Fives to top the group, rather remarkably having also had to recover from 5-10 down in their game against eventual third place finishers Ipswich 2, partly thanks to an ankle twist which prematurely ended Charlotta Cooley's day and also having won 12-11 against a determined Shrewsbury 5.
The top seeded pairs in the other groups all made it through without any undue alarms, with defending champions Shrewsbury 1 (Seb Cooley & Michael Draper) cruising through Group A, the up and coming Ipswich 1 (Isaac Weaver & Daniel Ingram) following much the same pattern in Group B. The other qualifying spots from Group A were taken by Repton 2 (Karen Hird & Tom Gilbody) ahead of QEB 1 (Mohammed Hurzuk & Zayn Phoplankar) and in Group B by Shrewsbury 4 (Adam Morris & Callum Dovaston) who took second place ahead of Charterhouse 1 (Tom Leach & Jan Michalski-Leach). St.Olave's 2 (Aadi Agarwal & Henry Etherington) wrapped up Group D pretty comfortably, followed by Highgate's Aroop Bhattacharya & Andrew Lee, with Charterhouse 2 (Matt Davis & Bertie Marshall-Rice) heading into a play-off. Shrewsbury 2 (Rex Worth & George Battersby) saw off Repton 1 (Archie Cameron-Blackie & Freddie Tebbs) in the battle for first in Group F, with Eton 2 (Rupert Swallow & Paul de Caraman Chimay) into the play-offs and the line-up for the knockout stages wes completed in Group E where Westminster's Riki Houlden (straight from a night shift) & Andrew Zhang, saw off a strong challenge for top spot from Shrewsbury 3 (Henry Blofield & Sam Spiby), leaving St.Olave's 3 (Dom Robson & Aksel Lutzow) to snaffle the final play-off spot.
Eton 2 and Charterhouse 2 made it through the play-offs, consigning Ipswich 2 (with Repton M-i-C David Exley subbing in for Charlotta) and St.Olave's 3 to Plate B alongside the fourth and fifth placed pairs from the morning groups.
The six group winners all won their Last Sixteen matches, with Eton 1 continuing their run with a 12-7 win over QEB 1; St.Olave's 1 got themselves back on track with a strong performance against Repton 1, while the other battle of the second-place finishers was won 12-10 by Shrewsbury 3 in a very tight game against Highgate.
The competition was beginning to heat up by the quarter-final stages with the standard of Fives - from both adults and school players alike - extremely high despite the tough conditions. The tournament was still awaiting a classic knockout contest to set it alight, however, but that would have to wait a bit longer as the quarter-finals were all won pretty convincingly. Shrewsbury 3 weren't able to match Shrewsbury 1; the Westminster run came to an end at the hands of a strong performance from St.Olave's 2; Eton 1's luck finally ran out against Shrewsbury 2 and Ipswich 1 saw off St.Olave's 1 in what could have been a tricky encounter. The semi-finals weren't particularly close either, Ipswich putting in a mightily impressive performance to extinguish any Salopian hopes of an all-Shrewsbury final and Cooley & Draper always having enough in the tank to keep the hitherto impeccable Agarwal & Etherington at arm's length, setting up a mouthwatering final.
While this was happening, the rest of the field were merrily working their way through a series of entertaining plate competitions. Riki had one more game in him before finally getting some sleep as he & Andrew finished off Prajeeth & Oscar's slightly disappointing day with a 15-10 win in the quarter-finalists plate. The eight pairs who lost in the last sixteen headed into Plate A, which was won in the end by Repton 1, whose chances looked to have gone as they struggled against Shrewsbury 4 in the semi-finals, but a deadline to get back to Shrewsbury meant a reprieve and Archie & Freddie made the most of it, saving their best for last with a 12-8 win over Highgate in the final. Plate A2 for the defeated Plate A quarter-final pairs saw Charterhouse 2 win a tense semi-final against QEB 1 to set up an all-Carthusian final, in which first pair asserted their authority over second pair with a 12-3 win.
Plate B was for the morning non-qualifiers and the first round featured a couple of thrillers, with Repton 3 (Richard Exley & Alfie Pitts) sneaking through 12-11 against Marlborough (Freddie Kottler & Henry Ashworth) and QEB 3 (Anas Bocus & Soham Gattu) putting in their best performance of the day to defeat St.Bart's 2 (Paul Holland & Freddie) 12-10. Lurking at the top and bottom of the Plate B draw, though, were the two play-off losers from earlier, and Ipswich 2 and St.Olave's 3 both made up for the disappointment of just missing out on the Last Sixteen by making it through to the final, although Shrewsbury 6 (Rufus & Theo Darke) pushed the Olavian pair all the way in their semi-final. By the time of the final, Ipswich schoolboy Max Williams had got used to playing with his new partner and finished off in style, leading his pair to a 12-4 win over Dom & Aksel.
The losing Plate B quarter-finalists reconvened in Plate C, which turned into a glorious triumph for the KES Birmingham pair of Pete Scholey & Hari Phillips, finishing strongly with 12-9 wins over QEB 3 and Repton 3. Plate D - for Plate B first round losers (keep up at the back...) turned into a revenge mission for Marlborough, who took out their frustration at their 11-12 defeat to Repton 3 on an assortment of St.Bart's pairs to finish on a high note. Plate E saw a triumph for perseverance as Lancing (the Steele brothers Henry & Jethro) finally recorded their first win of the day against St.Bart's 4 (James Holland & Rafferty). It was great to see the presence of pairs from places like KES, Lancing and Marlborough, who have not always been well represented in EFA tournaments in recent years - proof that the game is alive and kicking in lots of different locations around the country and special mention should be made of St.Bart's Newbury, with four youngsters all making their competition debuts alongside members of the Newbury club. We hope to see a lot more of them in the future.
The plate competitions were all drawing to a conclusion just as the final was starting and it was a shame that more people weren't able to stay and watch the top two pairs fight it out in what turned out to be a captivating match. Shrewsbury came into the match with a wealth of Turnbull Trophy experience, with Seb having played in the very first final in 1996 as a schoolboy and with eight victories to his name since, including last year, also with Michael Draper. Ipswich last had Turnbull finalists - the Fletcher brothers - back in 2003, but this year put forward probably the strongest pair Ipswich have ever had in this competition, with U25 champion Isaac Weaver teaming up with U16 national champion and recent London Tournament semi-finalist Daniel Ingram.
After the opening exchanges (back on a drying court playing normally again), it was the Ipswich pair who seized the initiative in the first game, dominating proceedings, volleying hard and putting Michael in particular under a lot of pressure at the back of the court, which resulted in plenty of errors and a 12-5 win. Everyone was expecting a response from the Shrewsbury pair in game two and it duly arrived, with Michael finding much greater consistency and relaxing a bit more, while Seb pushed up from the back into the mid-court a lot more, taking on the volley and putting the pressure back on the Ipswichians. With the set piece game well-balanced and the overall quality of the game very high indeed, Shrewsbury edged in front and although Ipswich pegged it back to 10-10, some strong cut-returning from the Shrewsbury pair created the chances to take them to a 15-11 win to level things up at 1-1.
The third game promised much - picking a winner with any certainty at this point felt nigh on impossible - and it didn't disappoint. Perhaps a bit of tiredness and the pressure of the game situation meant that the quality of Fives was not quite as consistently outstanding across the board as it had been in the second game, but there were still some magnificent rallies and some spectacular shot-making with a series of small momentum shifts meaning the advantage was constantly shifting. Isaac & Daniel got off to the better start, heading into a 4-0 lead but Seb & Michael were returning cut well, which inevitably led to opportunities and points. At 6-6, Ipswich had another burst of scoring and went 9-6 up but again Shrewsbury hit back, levelling at 9-9 then going 11-9 ahead as Seb's returning and volleying game again came to the fore. It looked all over at this point, as Shrewsbury got two gameball cuts up, one a nice loopy one off the front ledge, but somehow they contrived to lose both rallies; Isaac & Daniel couldn't quite believe they were still in it, but took immediate advantage to level at 11-11. It was then the Ipswich pair's turn to miss a couple of half chances while serving to get ahead once more before they eventually got to 13-12 a few hands later; the gameball cut was returned but they couldn't find the killer blow they needed and on the next hand, Shrewsbury stepped up again, levelling at 13-13 and this time taking the chance at the first time of asking to retain the trophy by the skin of their teeth.
This was a brilliant final, with all four players producing some stunning Fives, often under real pressure, and was very much one of those clichéd "no one deserved to lose" kind of matches. There was some small consolation for Ipswich in that they potentially have one more year in this tournament as a pair and if they both continue to improve as much as they currently are, they will take some stopping. For the Shrewsbury pair, this was a hugely impressive victory, Seb demonstrating that he can still show the youngsters a thing or two and Michael recovering superbly from his first game travails to turn things round and become a two-time Turnbull Trophy winner.
Our thanks go to Eton for hosting the tournament, to Advanta Wealth for their continued sponsorship and to the large number of people who worked behind the scenes to put so many pairs together and make it such an excellent tournament, including Andy Barnard, Adam Morris, Peter Boughton, Jonathan Hart, Sunil Tailor, Abilash Sivathasan, David Exley, Karen Hird, Sherisa Gumbs, Rupert Swallow, Tom Leach, Matthew Beard, Paul Holland, Jon Shorrocks, Tom Kiggell, Billy Bolton, Emily Scoones, Howard Wiseman, Alex Knight and Henry Steele. And if your school or club wasn't there, how about getting involved next year and making it an even bigger and better day?
Graham Turnbull Trophy 2025
Play-Off Round
Eton 2 (R.Swallow & P.de Caraman Chimay) beat Ipswich 2 (C.Cooley/D.Exley & M.Williams) 12-9
Charterhouse 2 (M.Davis & B.Marshall-Rice) beat St.Olave's 3 (D.Robson & A.Lutzow) 12-8
Last Sixteen
Shrewsbury 1 (S.Cooley & M.Draper) beat Eton 2 12-2
Shrewsbury 3 (H.Blofield & S.Spiby) beat Highgate (Ar.Bhattacharya & A.Lee) 12-10
Westminster (R.Houlden & A.Zhang) beat Repton 2 (K.Hird & T.Gilbody) 12-3
St.Olave's 2 (A.Agarwal & H.Etherington) beat Charterhouse 1 (T.Leach & J.Michalski-Leach) 12-3
Eton 1 (W.Ponsonby & A.Burford) beat QEB 1 (M.Hurzuk & Z.Phoplankar) 12-7
Shrewsbury 2 (R.Worth & G.Battersby) beat Shrewsbury 4 (A.Morris & C.Dovaston) 12-3
St.Olave's 1 (P.Sathiyamoorthy & O.Rushton) beat Repton 1 (A.Cameron-Blackie & F.Tebbs) 12-1
Ipswich 1 (I.Weaver & D.Ingram) beat Charterhouse 2 12-2
Quarter-Finals
Shrewsbury 1 beat Shrewsbury 3 15-5
St.Olave's 2 beat Westminster 15-4
Shrewsbury 2 beat Eton 1 15-8
Ipswich 1 beat St.Olave's 1 15-9
Semi-Finals
Shrewsbury 1 beat St.Olave's 2 15-9
Ipswich 1 beat Shrewsbury 2 15-3
Final
Shrewsbury 1 beat Ipswich 1 2-1 (5-12, 15-11, 14-13)
Quarter-Finalists Plate
Westminster beat St.Olave's 1 15-10
Plate A
Quarter-Finals
Highgate beat Eton 2 12-3
Repton 2 beat Charterhouse 1 12-3
Shrewsbury 4 beat QEB 1 12-1
Repton 1 beat Charterhouse 2 12-7
Semi-Finals
Highgate beat Repton 2 12-4
Repton 1 beat Shrewsbury 4 4-11 (ret)
Final
Repton 1 beat Highgate 12-8
Plate A2
Semi-Finals
Charterhouse 1 beat Eton 2 w/o
Charterhouse 2 beat QEB 1 12-9
Final
Charterhouse 1 beat Charterhouse 2 12-3
Plate B
Last Sixteen
St.Olave's 3 BYE
Repton 3 (R.Exley & A.Pitts) beat Marlborough (F.Kottler & H.Ashworth) 12-11
QEB 2 (A.Knight & J.Jeon) beat St.Bart's 3 (P.Lindfield & Dylan) 12-5
Shrewsbury 6 (T.Darke & R.Darke) beat St.Bart's 4 (J.Holland & Rafferty) 12-1
KES (P.Scholey & H.Phillips) beat Lancing (H.Steele & J.Steele) 12-1
Shrewsbury 5 (L.Hursthouse & N.Hammond) beat St.Bart's 1 (J.Hopkins & Pranav) 12-7
QEB 3 (A.Bocus & S.Gattu) beat St.Bart's 2 (P.Holland & Freddie) 12-10
Ipswich 2 BYE
Quarter-Finals
St.Olave's 3 beat Repton 3 12-4
Shrewsbury 6 beat QEB 2 12-2
Shrewsbury 5 beat KES 12-9
Ipswich 2 beat QEB 3 12-0
Semi-Finals
St.Olave's 3 beat Shrewsbury 6 12-11
Ipswich 2 beat Shrewsbury 5 12-5
Final
Ipswich 2 beat St.Olave's 3 12-4
Plate C
Semi-Finals
Repton 3 beat QEB 2 12-6
KES beat QEB 3 12-9
Final
KES beat Repton 3 12-9
3rd/4th
QEB 2 beat QEB 3 12-7
Plate D
Quarter-Finals
Marlborough BYE
St.Bart's 3 beat St.Bart's 4 12-5
St.Bart's 1 beat Lancing 12-5
St.Bart's 2 BYE
Semi-Finals
Marlborough beat St.Bart's 3 12-2
St.Bart's 1 beat St.Bart's 2 12-5
Final
Marlborough beat St.Bart's 1 12-1
3rd/4th
St.Bart's 2 beat St.Bart's 3 12-3
Plate E
Lancing beat St.Bart's 4 12-9
