Shrewsbury Retain The Richard Barber In A Thrilling Finish

The Richard Barber Cup is now firmly embedded in the Fives calendar, the post-Christmas team counterpart to the December Turnbull Trophy pairs tournament.

Seven teams hit the starting line this year, representing Shrewsbury (two teams), St.Olave's, Ipswich, Westminster, Highgate and Eton, a strong selection of the majority of the major Fives-playing schools. The competition was played as a round robin with the teams playing each other across three pairs, with each pair consisting of one current and one former pupil (or coach) and each game played as a one set to 15 shoot out.

Defending champions Shrewsbury A and previous winners St.Olave's quickly marked themselves out as the teams to beat and progressed through the first few rounds without dropping a point. Neither were miles ahead of the rest of the field, though, and the competition among the chasing pack was fierce both to try and take a game or two off the "big two" and to jostle for position behind them in the table.

It was great to see Westminster back in this competition after a few years away; they were the youngest and most inexperienced team there but after a slightly nervy start they began to gain confidence, the three young schoolboys improving rapidly and visibly alongside Sahil Shah, Ben Merrett and Elana Osen as the day went on and they gained their reward with a first victory in the final round of the competition after several near misses on the way.

The Highgate team had a bit of a nearly day, their team of Jack Flowers, Emily Scoones, Ashley Lumbard and their three school partners playing some good Fives all day but not quite getting the rewards on the scoreboard that their play deserved. Much the same could be said of the Eton side, their three boys putting in an excellent effort all day alongside Matt Asquith, Andrew White and Arthur Clover without ever quite threatening the upper echelons of the league table.

The key match in the battle for third place came in the penultimate round of the competition between the Shrewsbury second string and Ipswich. A 2-1 win for Shrewsbury would be enough to claim third even though they were sitting out the final round of matches; a win for Ipswich and their fate would be in their own hands going into the final round against Eton. The Shrewsbury team had looked solid all day with Adam Morris, Marc Quinn and Al Taylor providing bags of knowhow and experience for their school partners to feed off. Ipswich, though, had plenty of experience of their own to offer in Tim Gregory, Charlotta Cooley and Peter Boughton (with Nadia Mason rotated out for this round having made valuable contributions in other rounds) as well as a group of Year 12 schoolboys who are improving all the time and beginning to make their mark on the national stage. The three Ipswich pairs got off to great starts and it looked as if they were going to race to a 3-0 win; Shrewsbury fought back across the board, though, enough to win at second pair but wins at first and third left Ipswich needing to win two pairs against Eton in the final round to claim third place overall, and this they duly did to complete a hugely impressive effort from the Suffolk side.

The final round also saw the two unbeaten teams taking each other on in a de facto final. With Richard Barber himself watching on among an increasingly enthralled crowd, the match was one of those that shows just why the team format can be so exciting. At first it looked as though it was going to be straightforward as defending champions Shrewsbury took control in all three courts in the early stages. Third pair was the first to finish, Dom Robson & Alex Sapozhenko unable to claw back the lead established by a determined Guy Williams & Theo Wylie. Tony Barker & Aaditya Anoop at first pair were beginning to reel in the Salopian pairing of Seb Cooley & George Hughes but it seemed likely to be in vain, with Henry Blofield & Jack Home 14-8 up in pair two against Prajeeth Sathiyamoorthy & Tommy Farmer and one point from claiming the trophy. This is where things started getting interesting, however, as Henry & Jack got stuck on 14, unable to find the gameball return and rally that would finish off their opponents, opponents who started gaining a little bit of momentum and belief. Suddenly the atmosphere began to change as Prajeeth & Tommy continued their charge all the way to 14-14 before winning the final point themselves and turning the whole tie on its head in a matter of minutes. 1-1 then, and all eyes now on first pair, which at that stage was delicately poised at 13-12 with all now to play for. Fittingly, for the closing stages of the decisive first pair match between the two best teams in the competition, the standard of Fives was superb, both schoolboys more than holding their own at the set piece and in the rallies while Seb & Tony traded blows. It went to 14-14 (of course it did...) and in truth neither pair deserved to lose, but in the end it was Shrewsbury who finally fell over the line that only 20 minutes before they had been cantering towards, leaving the St.Olave's team disappointed but proud of themselves for putting up such a tremendous fight and comeback.

Thanks go to Ryan Perrie and Eton for hosting the competition, Advanta Wealth for their sponsorship and to all of the schools and clubs who worked so hard to put teams together and make it such an enjoyable day.

1. Shrewsbury A - 17 points

2. St.Olave's - 16 points

3. Ipswich - 9 points

4. Shrewsbury B - 9 points

5. Eton - 6 points

6. Highgate - 5 points

7. Westminster- 1 point

Final Round

Shrewsbury A beat St.Olave's 2-1

S.Cooley & G.Hughes beat T.Barker & A.Anoop 15-14

H.Blofield & J.Home lost to P.Sathiyamoorthy & T.Farmer 14-15

G.Williams & T.Wylie beat D.Robson & A.Sapozhenko 15-9