Fives yw'r enillydd yng Nghymru

08/10/19: The 2019 Welsh Invitational tournament - now in its seventh year - took place at Rydal Penrhos at the weekend and was once again a huge success, proving that there is talent and enthusiasm for the game in abundance in North Wales.

With the usual September tournament having to be postponed this year due to player unavailability, it was a great relief to all that the 2019 Welsh Tournament took place at Rydal Penrhos last weekend. The usual mixture of boys and girls of all ages from the school and various guest players - this year including tournament veterans Gareth Hoskins, Stephen Thatcher and Tom Cotterell and first timers Matt Chinery and Harry Asquith - spent the weekend playing in various combinations and in various competitions, all organised by Paul Bowden and Mark Williams.

After several highly successful years following the re-introduction of Fives to the school nearly a decade ago, the last few months have seen greater uncertainty with rapid staff turnover and the loss of the gap year coach. It was therefore great to see that enthusiasm for the game from staff, parents and pupils was as high as ever and hopefully the momentum generated from this weekend will carry Rydal's Fives forward over the coming school year.

U6th former Matti Fiorita has taken over in recent years as the dominant force in the competition since the departure of Will Sissons and he continued his excellent run in the Saturday tournament, partnering Raif Horrocks to a convincing win in the final against Adam McGuigan and Max Cowen-Wright. Sunday - with the field split into a senior and junior section and the guest players involved all the way through to the final - was a different story; this time Matti missed a place in the final by the skin of his teeth, losing a semi-final shootout 12-11 alongside Harry Asquith at the hands of Matt Chinery and Luke Davies, who went on to play Anthony Bowe and Old Rydalian Tom Cotterell in the final.

Anthony has had several near misses in the various competition in recent years and was determined not to miss out this time. Tom had also never won the senior Sunday competition and the two of them flew out of the blocks against Matt and Luke, racing through the first game in double quick time and finishing the job in the second game to claim a well-deserved win.

Our thanks go to Sally Harding, Nicky Head, Dawn Jones and everyone at Rydal for their warm welcome and we look forward to seeing Rydal Fives continue to go from strength to strength.

Results

Saturday 5th October

Semi Finals

Adam McGuigan & Max Cowen-Wright beat Anthony Bowe & Johan Craddock 12-9

Matti Fiorita & Raif Horrocks beat Josh Stewart & Ethan Akroyd 12-9

Final

Matti Fiorita & Raif Horrocks beat Adam McGuigan & Max Cowen-Wright 12-4

Sunday 16th October

Senior Semi Finals

Tom Cotterell & Anthony Bowe beat Stephen Thatcher & Abhishek Bathula 12-5

Matt Chinery & Luke Davies beat Harriet Asquith & Matti Fiorita 12-11

Final

Tom Cotterell & Anthony Bowe beat Matt Chinery & Luke Davies 2-0 (12-1 12-5)

Junior Semi Finals

Raif Horrocks & Matthew Johnson beat James Gilman & Tarum Romash 12-6

Max Cowen-Wright & August Ball-Iversen beat Ethan Akroyd & Arum Romash 12-6

Final

Max Cowen-Wright & August Ball-Iversen beat Raif Horrocks & Matthew Johnson 2-1 (12-2 10-12 12-5)

Girls

Ester Ball-Iversen & Charlotte Hourihane beat Emily Thomas & Alys Peake-Jones 2-0 (12-7 12-11)