Exeter Green Beats The Blues In The Universities Mixed
26/01/26: Exeter University's Fred Prickett & Claudia Tate broke the Oxbridge monopoly on the Universities Mixed title with a terrific win in a high quality tournament at Eton yesterday.
Aroop Bhattacharya & Alice Brett for Liverpool were the last non-Oxbridge pair to win the Universities Mixed tournament back in 2017, the Oxford and Cambridge pairs having the significant advantage of university courts, a club and regular practice.
Exeter's Harrovian/Reptonian pairing of Fred Prickett & Claudia Tate had come close last year, losing a 12-10 deciding game semi-final to Oxford and were back this year determined to go at least one better. Both have already tasted success this year, with Fred winning the U25s at the start of the season and Claudia an integral part of the Repton side that won the Richard Black Cup in November. They were not the only non-Oxbridge pair with designs on the trophy this year, however, with the West Country also represented by a strong Bath pair in Charlotte Barr & Henry Barton-Smith, looking to emulate Tim Leech & Emily Scoones, who made the final for Bath back in 2013.
Up against them were three Oxford pairs and four from Cambridge with both universities bringing their strongest available pairings. The field was completed with a Surrey/King's hybrid pairing of Old Westminster Alexia de Silva and Old Elizabethan Indrajit Datta. With the majority of the women already having played in the morning women's competition, play got underway at lunchtime with the field of ten pairs divided into two groups of five.The best game of the group phase came early on, as the Bath pair took on Oxford 3 (women's champion Rachel McCormack & U21 winner from last weekend Tommy Farmer) in a game that ultimately determined which of the two would qualify for the semi-finals. With the Bath pair finding their feet, the Oxford pair sensed an opportunity, with Rachel's confidence on a high after her morning victory. They got to 11-9 and fashioned one golden chance to win the game which sadly for them went begging; Bath didn't need a second invitation, levelling up at 11-11 and then clinching the winning point in a result which had a large bearing on the rest of the day. Neither Bath nor Oxford 3 could find a way past Oxford 1 (defending champon Freya Butler & Aaditya Deshmukh), who topped the group with four wins out of four, with Bath joining them in the semi-finals and Oxford 3 heading into the Plate alongside Cambridge 2 (Emma Spencer & Jamie Levinson) and Cambridge 3 (Light Blue captains Anna Fitzpatrick & Alex Davies).
Exeter were in control in the other group from the off, with only Oxford 2 (Lorenza Valensise, the morning's other winner, & Lewis Drummond, 2024 winner with Cambridge but now doing a PhD at Oxford) offering much in the way of a challenge, Exeter winning the group decider 12-9. Cambridge 1 (Lucy Bland & Giles Holliday) played some good Fives to come third, with Cambridge 4 (Tamara Fifield & "ringer" Will Tate) and the King's/Surrey pair heading into the Plate.
The Plate put the six non semi-final pairs into two small mini-groups, followed by three "finals" to determine 5th/6th, 7th/8th and 9th/10th places. Cambridge 1 and Oxford 3 won through to play each other and it was Cambridge 1 who produced their best Fives of the day against a tiring Oxford 3 to claim 5th. Cambridge 2 & Cambridge 4 decided that the last game was one too many to share 7th/8th and Cambridge 3 finished off with a 12-4 win over King's/Surrey.
The two semi-finals saw the two group winners taking on the two runners-up, meaning that there was an all-Oxford battle between their top two pairs and a West Country derby between Exeter & Bath. Both semi-finals were fantastic matches, with all four pairs playing to an extremely high standard and showing just how good Mixed Fives can be when played well. Freya & Aaditya asserted their place in the Dark Blue pecking order as Pair 1 beat Pair 2, but it was a close run thing, Lorenza & Lewis pushing them all the way before finally succumbing 15-12. The other semi-final was equally exciting with the two pairs neck and neck right up until the last few moments. There was a bit of school rivalry with a Reptonian on each side and having knocked off some of the early rust, Bath's Charlotte Barr was showing the skills and athleticism that took her to victory in the 2024 National Schools' competition for Cranleigh. Charlotte & Henry threw everything they had at Fred & Claudia but the Exeter pair stood firm, with Claudia strong at the set piece and athletic around the court and Fred finding a great cutting rhythm and controlling the court, maintaining their slender one or two point lead almost throughout and always avoiding the one bad hand that might have cost them. Eventually they closed the game out 15-12 to take their place in the final.
Bath showed the level they had reached by the end of the day with a convincing 15-7 over Oxford 2 in the 3rd/4th match. In the final, meanwhile, Exeter got off to a flying start, dominating the set piece and not allowing Aaditya & Freya to gain even the slightest foothold in the match. A 12-2 win was well-deserved but Exeter knew that Oxford would be tougher opponents in the second game and so it proved. Freya - returning to the court after several months out with a broken ankle - and Olavian Aaditya began to find some cut returns and started to get the scoreboard ticking. Often in these tight and well-matched mixed games it is a couple of key points at the end of the game that decides things and so it proved here, Exeter finding that bit of inspiration just when it was needed to surge ahead at exactly the right time to win 12-9 and claim the title in straight games, breaking Fred's run of four successive semi-finals in University tournaments.
Our thanks go to Eton for hosting the tournament, to the Jesters for providing their generous travel grant, without which the tournament would not be able to operate and to everyone who made it such an enjoyable and fun day.
Semi-Finals
Oxford 1 (F.Butler & A.Deshmukh) beat Oxford 2 (L.Valensise & L.Drummond) 15-12
Exeter (C.Tate & F.Prickett) beat Bath (C.Barr & H.Barton-Smith) 15-12
Final
Exeter beat Oxford 1 2-0 (12-2, 12-9)
3rd/4th
Bath beat Oxford 2 15-7
5th/6th
Cambridge 1 (L.Bland & G.Holliday) beat Oxford 3 (R.McCormack & T.Farmer) 12-4
7th/8th
Cambridge 2 (E.Spencer & J.Levinson) v Cambridge 4 (T.Fifield & W.Tate)
9th/10th
Cambridge 3 (A.Fitzpatrick & A.Davies) beat King’s/Surrey (A.de Silva & I.Datta) 12-4
