Cooley & Whitehead Win The Graves

Cooley & Whitehead Win The Graves

11/01/23: The annual Ipswich Tournament for the Graves Cup was back in its traditional early January slot for the first time since 2020 at the weekend.

With 2021 written off to the pandemic and a smaller than usual 2022 version played in mid-summer, the start of 2023 saw the Ipswich Fives world settle back onto its traditional New Year axis, pretty much as if nothing had ever happened.

On the Saturday morning at 10:30am, the weather was cold and wet, Stubbsy was already chained to the sink, Peter Boughton hadn't yet turned up, the kettle was on and a host of familiar faces (plus a few optimistic younger ones already wearing gloves and Fives kit) gathered in the school pavilion as if they'd never been away.

The Graves Cup brings together Old Ipswichians, current pupils, staff and carefully selected guests with the eminent, all-knowing and all-powerful seeding committee meeting on the Friday evening to carefully put together the pairings, produce a draw and maybe have a couple of drinks. The order in which those things happen may or may not have an influence on what appears - eventually - with PVB on the Saturday morning, but inevitably it always works. A strong field of thirteen pairs took to the start line this time, with Saturday's play consisting of three groups - one per court - with the rough aim of somehow producing eight quarter-finalists by the end of the day.

There was some early rust to shake off - Stubbsy only realised right at the last minute that he is supposed to win the plate, successfully losing his first match in Group C alongside Elliot Caldwell 15-14 having been 11-4 and 14-10 ahead. This was the group of five pairs, and although there was another 15-14 result and two 15-13s (most seeming to involve the "Class of 91" pairing of Gareth Hoskins & Alistair Kelly), the group finished with a satisfying neatness - Harry Asquith & Henry Gardner winning the group decider ahead of Peter Forrest & Harvey Garrard, Hoskins & Kelly coming third, Stubbs & Caldwell - as is traditional - positioning themselves for the plate in fourth and 2022 winner Simon Cass eying up the wooden spoon alongside Mandie Barnes.

The other two groups both involved four pairs, with matches played over two games to 12. Group A was the tightest - Isaac Wagland & uberveteran Nigel Cox scored comfortably the highest number of sartorial points and posed some problems for their opponents, but fared less well in terms of actual games won; the other three pairs, however, played out a series of 1-1 draws which left the group as a three way tie. It came down to points to split them, with Isaac Weaver & Nadia Mason edging out Mark Graves & Will Carron for top spot with Cam Lyle & Sam Allen unlucky to end up third.

The seeding committee found themselves in Group B and suffered contrasting fortunes; Boughton was unable to trouble the scorers, although his young partner John Hall showed a lot of promise and marked himself out as one to watch. Charlotta Cooley, however, was battling it out for top spot with partner Toryn Whitehead against Steve Burnell & Alex Phillips, with yet another 1-1 draw producing another tie at the top. Steve & Alex came out on top of the group once the numbers had been crunched, while Tim Gregory & Dmitri Seymour-Howell had to content themselves with third spot.

The organiser was then left with a very Ipswich Tournament problem of getting nine pairs into eight quarter-final slots and in classic Boughtonian style, the answer was to introduce a tenth pair. One or two of the older and more cynical OIs may have raised half an eyebrow at the possibility of "giant of the game" Seb Cooley not playing on Saturday then miraculously finding himself in the knockout draw on Sunday and winning the tournament (it has been known...); others would perhaps take the approach that teaching all day Saturday and doing a seven hour round trip just to take part in as much of the tournament as possible shows admirable commitment to the cause. Either way it meant a couple of Sunday morning play-offs to see who would be joining the group winners and runners-up in the quarter-finals.

All that could wait, however, as there was the Saturday evening dinner in the pavilion to navigate first, as convivial an occasion as ever and an opportunity for the current crop of senior school players to pass their Graves Cup initiation, with "flying colours" in one particular case (literally, at about 11:30pm). Said individual was back on court bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Sunday morning, happily, having proved his OI Fives credentials impeccably.

Stubbsy's route to yet more Plate glory was dealt a hefty blow on Sunday morning as Seb and partner Kishan Soni fell at the first hurdle at the hands of Cam Lyle & Sam Allen. They then proceeded to take on and defeat all comers in Plate A, leaving a bewildered Stubbs crying into his pinny as he did yet more washing up, contemplating the ignominy of only coming second in the competition he has more or less made his own over the years.

Gregory & Seymour-Howell were the other pair to make it through the early morning repechage and they made the most of the opportunity, producing the upset of the tournament to knock out the fancied and hitherto unbeaten pairing of Asquith & Gardner 15-14 in the quarter-finals. Fellow qualifiers Cam & Sam were brushed aside by Burnell & Phillips, Weaver & Mason produced an imperious display to dispatch Forrest & Garrard and Cooley (C) & Whitehead completed the semi-final line-up, squeezing past Graves & Carron in a tight game that could easily have gone either way.

The semis were more straightforward with Gregory & Seymour-Howell's run ended by Weaver & Mason, who continued to combine to great effect. The other semi-final was a repeat of one of the previous day's drawn matches but Cooley & Whitehead had gained in confidence from winning their tricky quarter-final, took their game up a couple of notches and came up against a pairing in Burnell & Phillips who couldn't find any answers and rapidly ran out of steam.

The best of five final was a great match up, a first ever Graves Cup final between two mixed pairs and a first in which all four players sported a ponytail (at least I assume so; I didn't actually see the 1979 final between Boughton & Levick and Woolfries & Broyden and it was still the 1970s after all. But ponytails? Probably not...).

This year's final was an exciting prospect, with the in form Cooley/Whitehead partnership taking on Weaver & Mason, whose game was based around some all-court pyrotechnics from Isaac with Nadia providing a solid set piece and steady back court support. Nadia continued to do her job well throughout the final but if they were to win it, Isaac was going to have to successfully walk the tightrope between taking on enough himself to win the rallies but not taking too much and making too many mistakes. The fact that they got so close was proof of how well they did it for the majority of the final, winning the first and fourth games to take it to a fifth game decider; indeed at 2 games all and 7-5 up they seemed the more likely winners. Charlotta was playing well, but Toryn's level - excellent all weekend - had dipped a little in the fifth after a decent start and Isaac & Nadia were beginning to take advantage and close in on victory. To his credit, Toryn refound his cutting form just at the right time, denying his opponents easy points-scoring opportunities and creating enough chances for his pair to come through and take the deciding game 12-7. Worthy champions indeed.

Mark Graves was on hand to present the trophy (36 years of hurt and counting...) in front of the decent-sized crowd who had stayed to watch the final and bring an end to the 2023 Graves Cup, now back in its rightful place and hopefully on track for many years to come.

Thanks as always to everyone at Ipswich School and the OI club for helping to make it happen, but especially to Peter Boughton for overseeing everything with his traditional air of insouciant calm. And thanks to Stubbsy for doing the washing up - he may even have finished it by now.

Play-Offs

T.Gregory & D.Seymour-Howell beat G.Hoskins & A.Kelly 15-7

C.Lyle & S.Allen beat S.Cooley & K.Soni 15-11

Quarter-Finals

I.Weaver & N.Mason beat P.Forrest & H.Garrard 15-6

T.Gregory & D.Seymour-Howell beat H.Asquith & H.Gardner 15-14

C.Cooley & T.Whitehead beat M.Graves & W.Carron 15-13

S.Burnell & A.Phillips beat C.Lyle & S.Allen 15-3

Semi-Finals

I.Weaver & N.Mason beat T.Gregory & D.Seymour-Howell 2-0 (12-5, 12-8)

C.Cooley & T.Whitehead beat S.Burnell & A.Phillips 2-0 (12-5, 12-5)

Final