Arjaria & Agarwal Win The Midlands....Just!

Arjaria & Agarwal Win The Midlands....Just!

05/11/24: St.Olave's School pair Tanish Arjaria & Aadi Agarwal became the youngest ever Midlands Tournament winners at Repton on Sunday.

29 pairs made it to Repton this year for the traditional Midlands weekend, with players of all ages and from all parts of the Fives world, from St.Olave's and Ipswich in the South East to St.Bees in the North West, with a good sprinkling of Reptonians past and present and members of the local Repton and Derby Moor clubs.

Saturday's play mixed everyone in together to produce two separate competitions on Sunday - the Main for the top sixteen qualifiers and the Festival for the others. The Sunday Festival consisted of two large groups leading to two semi-finals, which featured three school pairs - one from St.Olave's, one from Ipswich and one from St.Bees - and the Reptonian/Derby Moor student pairing of Henry Barton-Smith & Callum Yates. Olavians Monty & Hugo shattered the St.Bees dream of silverware with a convincing win over Suproto & Philippe, and Henry & Callum came from 11-6 down in the first game to win 12-11, 12-6 against Ipswichians Jake & Max. Henry & Callum continued that form at the start of the final, winning the first game 12-5, but the Olavians rallied well in the second and with their opponents beginning to run out of steam, they took the next two to win the Festival title.

The Last Sixteen in the Main produced some interesting matches, with the Exley brothers just getting the better of Peter Boughton & Charlotta Cooley and the Repton staff/school pair of Karen Hird & Bri Hansen-Hoare pushing Lewis Keates & Bomi Adenugba all the way. There was an impressive win for St.Olave's U15 pair Luke Whitnall & Krivi Bhavsar, who then found their progress abruptly ended in the quarter-finals at the hands of Joey Prior & Gwydion Wiseman. Lewis & Bomi were soon involved in another tight match, an epic quarter-final against Old Ipswichians Elliot Caldwell & Alex Phillips, a match which see-sawed one way then the other and almost inevitably reaching 13-13 in the decider before Elliot & Alex clinched the winning point. Elsewhere in the draw, Tony Stubbs & Sam Cook had made it through to the knockouts, but their excellent team kit effort - matching Grimsby Town numbers - weren't matched by their performance on court as they failed to trouble the scorers against Franklin Baron & Caleb Boy. The Olavian student pair moved through to a quarter-final against Cholms Abhishek Bhattacharya & Emily Scoones, which was another one of the matches of the day. Caleb is a top squash player with a Fives background and his left-handed unorthodoxy and athleticism posed plenty of trouble for his experienced opponents (and occasionally for his own partner). Emily & Abs are shrewd operators, though, and worked it out well enough in the end, taking the deciding game 12-6. The other pair making a strong impression were Olavian school first pair Tanish Arjaria & Aadi Agarwal. These two are already a known quantity - former U16 schools champions, U21 finalists and with an impressive collection of league and tournament scalps already - and they made short work of the other Old Reptonian pairs in the draw - first Sam Basu & JP Houlier and then David & Richard Exley - to secure their place in the semi-finals.

While a plethora of plates and plates of plates continued across the courts, Tanish & Aadi and Gwydion & Joey ensured that the semi-finals were swift and drama-free, defeating Abs & Emily and Elliot & Alex respectively in straight games. The final was anything but drama-free, however, as a good sized crowd settled in to watch a thrilling battle between four players who all know each other very well indeed. Tanish & Aadi took control of the match from the start, taking an early lead and never really looking like losing it, although Gwydion & Joey did make it back to 12-9. There was an immediate switch around at the start of the second, however, as Gwydion & Joey raised the intensity and Tanish & Aadi started making mistakes under the increased pressure. 12-7 to Joey & Gwydion and into a decider. For large parts of the third game it looked as though Gwydion & Joey would maintain the hold on the match that they had established in the second game and at 10-6 the finish line was in sight. Just in time, though, Tanish & Aadi found an extra gear and closed the gap to 10-9. At this point there was a dramatic external intervention as Joey chased a ball out the back of the court, lost his balance and collided heavily with the brick wall. It was a nasty moment and he was clearly affected but recovered sufficiently to carry on, even making it to 12-10 ahead and getting a chance at gameball. Tanish & Aadi were equal to the challenge, though, saving the match points with some fine play and then levelling at 12-12, before getting the bit of luck they needed to get themselves over the line, a cut return clipping the back edge of the step and rolling along the floor to score the decisive point and bring a fabulous final to a close.

Our thanks go to Repton for hosting the tournament, to Howard Wiseman & Dom Redmond for their organisation and to all those who came along and made it another Midlands weekend to remember.

Last Sixteen

G.Wiseman & J.Prior beat O.Ruston & H.Etherington 15-7

L.Whitnall & K.Bhavsar beat H.Wiseman & E.Phillips 15-10

E.Caldwell & A.Phillips beat Aryan & Aayan 15-7

F.Adenbugba & L.Keates beat K.Hird & B.Hansen-Hoare 15-12

F.Baron & C.Boy beat T.Stubbs & S.Cook 15-0

E.Scoones & Ab.Bhattacharya beat Johan & Aryan 15-2

D.Exley & R.Exley beat C.Cooley & P.Boughton 15-12

T.Arjaria & A.Agarwal beat S.Basu & JP.Houlier 15-5

Quarter-Finals

G.Wiseman & J.Prior beat L.Whitnall & K.Bhavsar 2-0 (12-0, 12-1)

E.Caldwell & A.Phillips beat F.Adenbugba & L.Keates 2-1 (12-7, 2-12, 14-13)