Houlden & Young Storm To London Victory
10/12/24: Riki Houlden & Hugo Young retained the London Tournament in association with Advanta Wealth at Harrow at the weekend, cruising to victory without losing a game.
A wet and windy weekend greeted the participants in this year's London Tournament at Harrow. Possibly due to the unavoidable but disappointing need to move the tournament a week later than originally scheduled, the main tournament entry was a bit down on the usual size, with 13 pairs taking part and one or two familiar names absent. The quality was still very high, however and it was actually something of a relief that there weren't more as the lights on the bottom six courts weren't working initially and required the attention of an emergency electrician, who was thankfully able to fix things in time for the larger Festival on Sunday.
The pairs were divided into three groups to determine the quarter-final placings with the results largely following the seedings. There was a fine opening performance in Group A from Karen Hird & Nick Shaw, who made Tom Cox & Rex Worth work hard for their win; this may have helped get Tom & Rex into gear as they then won convincingly against Alex Abrahams & Ben Merrett to claim second spot in the group behind the top seeds Riki Houlden & Hugo Young, who cruised through untroubled. Alex & Ben took the third and final qualifying spot, with Karen & Nick and Cholmeleians Emily Scoones & Vatche Kassardjian heading into the Plate.
With Seb Cooley unavailable, Group B featured the first time pairing of two former London Tournament champions in Tom Dunbar & Jonny Ho. The initial signs were good as they completed a comfortable clean sweep to top the group ahead of Ryan Perrie & Jack Pemberton. Third place was claimed by Richard Tyler & Oskar Denby ahead of Alex Vinen & James Alster, keeping alive their hopes of a quarter-final place. The closest matches of the group stage were in the final round of Group C, Ed Taylor & Noah Caplin playing Charles Plummer & Vish Bhimjiyani for top spot and Prajeeth Sathiyamoorthy & Henry Etherington up against Fred Prickett & Abs Bhattacharya for third place. Ed & Noah came through top of the group by the narrowest of margins, winning 15-14 to claim the third seed slot while Prajeeth & Henry performed a minor miracle to come from 5-13 down to win 15-13 against Fred & Abs.
Their reward for the win was a play-off against Richard & Oskar for the last place in the quarter-finals, with experience this time winning the day 15-10. The young Olavian pair then headed into the plate where they met Karen & Nick in the final round robin game with both pairs undefeated. This was a hugely entertaining match, with Karen & Nick ahead for most of it but unable to get over the line and allowing Prajeeth & Henry to come from behind again and win 15-14.
The two top seeds continued to show they were a level above the rest in the quarter-finals, Riki & Hugo dismissing Richard & Oskar 3-0 for the loss of just 2 points and Tom & Jonny not taking much longer to see off Alex & Ben. The other two semi-final places, by way of contrast, were fought over tooth and nail, and those who managed to put up with the arctic conditions to watch were rewarded with some brilliant Fives and excellent entertainment. It has been a while - mainly due to injury - since Tom & Rex have been on the start list for a major tournament but they looked as if they had never been away as they took on Noah & Ed. Tom & Rex will have come off at the end of the first game disappointed to have lost it 12-10 after playing some terrific attacking Fives and although they had a dip in the second game, they came back firing in the third, deservedly getting on the scoreboard with a 13-11 win. For long stretches of the fourth it looked as though we would be heading for a decider as Tom & Rex made most of the running, reaching 10 and then 14 first. Noah & Ed dug in, however, producing some impressively resilient clutch points to twice peg them back and level at 10-10 and 14-14 before taking their second 15-14 game of the day to claim their spot in the last four. If that match was a dogfight for three of the four games, the final quarter-final between Charles & Vish and Ryan & Jack was more of a rollercoaster, with ascendancy swinging back and forth between the two pairs. The first game was pretty close but edged by Charles & Vish; Ryan & Jack then hit back hard with a dominant second game to level at 1-1. The closest and possibly pivotal game was the third, which was one of the few times in the match where there was no momentum in anyone's favour and it turned into a real arm wrestle. Jack & Ryan won it 15-14, but weren't able to capitalise initially as a dip in form allowed the Mil Hill pair to race through a one-sided fourth game and take it to a decider. One final game...and one final momentum shift, with Ryan & Jack this time getting in front and never really looking like being shifted, hard though Charles & Vish tried. 12-8 to Ryan & Jack and they were through to the Sunday semis.
There was a clear sense on Sunday morning that Ryan & Jack and Ed & Noah would both have their work cut out against the top two seeds in the semi-finals. And so it proved, although both gave it a pretty good go and played some excellent Fives, with Ryan & Jack finding a level of consistency that had eluded them a little the day before. They were up against Riki & Hugo, however, who simply had a couple of gears too many, winning 4, 5 and 4 to continue their serene progress. Ed & Noah also found the going pretty tough against Tom & Jonny, losing the first two games to 3 and 5. In the third, though, they upped their game, finding some extra intensity and forcing Tom & Jonny to have to push themselves quite hard to come from behind and win the third 12-8.
The final was a fascinating match up: Riki & Hugo were looking for a third consecutive London Tournament title and a fourth consecutive major after their clean sweep last season. In their way, though, were a pair they had never played before, with Riki's former London-winning partner Jonny teaming up with 19 times Kinnaird champion Tom to create a formidable looking challenge for the defending champions. Right from the start, though, it was clear that Riki & Hugo were more than equal to it. Hugo was looking sharp on top step and solid at the back while Riki barely made a mistake all match, even unveiling his new and highly effective left-handed cut from time to time. Tom & Jonny played some fine Fives, as you would expect from two such high class players, but they were never able to put Riki & Hugo under any sustained pressure and simply made more mistakes, both forced and occasionally unforced. There was a spell in the third game where a purple patch on top step from Jonny got them into a position where they might have had a look at winning the game, but Riki & Hugo snuffed the opportunity out quickly and ruthlessly before racing to the finish line to claim the trophy for the third year in a row as a pair and the fifth time in a row for Riki. This was an extremely impressive display by the defending champions, who have laid down a marker for the rest of the season. Can anyone step up and challenge them?
While the main tournament was small but elite, the Sunday Festival saw 25 pairs of all ages, shapes and sizes descend on the courts (now thankfully all with working lights, bar one!) to have fun and compete for some of the edible prizes on offer. As with every good Festival competition, the day started with a whole bunch of potential contenders but no obvious favourites as the pairs got to work in the group phase to sort themselves out for the afternoon knockouts and plate competitions. There was a healthy contingent of Ipswich School pairs as well as representation from Cambridge, St.Olave's, Westway, Lancing, the Brigands, Charterhouse, North Oxford, Berkhamsted, the Cholms, Etonians and Westminsters with the 25 pairs divided into six groups, the top two heading into the main knockouts and Plate A and the other 13 heading to Plate B.
With four pairs straight into the quarter-finals, the other eight started off by deciding who would join them; the closest game of the round was a 12-10 win for EFA Chair Matt Chinery and his wife Rachel Wood over Cambridge's Lewis Drummond & Tom Ford, while Ipswich School U16 pair Daniel Ingram & Charlie Dinmore - after a group game defeat at the hands of Matt Davis & Al Taylor - showed they were beginning to hit form with a 12-1 win over Westway's Natalie Lilienthal & James Grant-Peterkin. Natalie & James and Lewis & Tom joined the other two defeated first round pairs (Westminsters Hatam Barma & Brian Chen and the Westminster/Repton alliance of Oliver Black & Henry Barton-Smith) in Plate A, which culminated some time later in an epic final, won 15-10 by Lewis & Tom and which involved Brian spending an awful lot of time on the floor stretching various bits of his body to try and overcome some pretty vicious looking bouts of cramp.
Dan & Charlie and Matt & Rachel were joined in the quarter-finals by Ipswich's Charlotta Cooley & Sam Cook and the Charterhouse pair of Tom Leach & Bertie Marshall-Rice, who took on the four group winners already waiting for them in the last eight. The battle of the Matts was won by Matt Davis as he & Al Taylor ended the Chinery/Wood challenge for the day 15-9; Tom & Bertie pushed the young Olavian pair of Oscar Rushton & Ayan Shetty close but not quite close enough, going down 15-11; Sam & Charlotta came up against a fine display by ex-QEB pair and Festival veterans Abilash Sivathasan & Avinash Kumararuban but their fellow Ipswichians produced the performance of the round as Dan & Charlie powered to a 15-10 win over Vatche Kassardjian & Rupert Swallow, who were perhaps the closest the competition had to pre-tournament favourites.
There was no stopping Dan & Charlie now as they gained some Ipswichian revenge with another underdog win in the semis, a 15-13 nalbiter against Abilash & Avinash and perhaps inevitably, their opponents in the final turned out to be the pair that had beaten them 15-9 in the very first game of the day, as Matt & Al ended the run of the two Olavian schoolboys 15-11.
The final was played as a best of three match and provided excellent entertainment for the good sized watching crowd, most of whom - but not all - were supporting the young Ipswich pair. Dan & Charlie started well, riding the wave of confidence after their quarter and semi-final perfomances to win the first game 12-9. With the finish line in sight, though, they began to falter a little bit, not least thanks to some fine play from their more experienced opponents as Matt & Al began to get on top in the set piece and force more mistakes. 12-8 to Matt & Al and into a decider, which was perhaps just a game too far for Matt & Al, who were beginning to tire and who were unable to sustain the consistency of shot and effectiveness of set piece that they had shown in the second game. Dan & Charlie seized their opportunity, attacking more than they had in the second game and establishing a lead which they never relinquished, going on to win the deciding game 12-7 and claim an excellent victory.
While all this was going on, Plate B had been progressing on similar lines, with Ipswich playing the numbers game in the hope that by volume of pairs they would produce a winner. Harry Mercer & Callum Warnes turned out to be the pair who did the job, apprentices defeating masters Stubbs & Boughton in the semis before winning the final against Cambridge's Jamie Lai & Emilia Collinson, who had made the final thanks to a 12-11 win over scratch pairing Chiedo Nkwocha & Henry Steele.
The numbers theory also worked for Ipswich in Plate C, as Richard Byford & John Hall pipped Betsy Laws & Millie Hodgkinson in the deciding match of their five pair Round Robin.
Our thanks go to Harrow School and Ian Hutchinson for hosting the tournament, to Dale Vargas and the electrician for sorting out the lighting emergency, to Advanta for their continued sponsorship and to everyone who braved the storm to get to Harrow and make it such an enjoyable weekend.
Main Tournament
Quarter-Finals
R.Houlden & H.Young beat R.Tyler & O.Denby 3-0 (12-1, 12-0, 12-1)
R.Perrie & J.Pemberton beat C.Plummer & V.Bhimjiyani 3-2 (10-12, 12-3, 15-14, 2-12, 12-8)
N.Caplin & E.Taylor beat R.Worth & T.Cox 3-1 (12-10, 12-3, 11-13, 15-14)
T.Dunbar & J.Ho beat A.Abrahams & B.Merrett 3-0 (12-4, 12-3, 12-3)
Semi-Finals
R.Houlden & H.Young beat R.Perrie & J.Pemberton 3-0 (12-4, 12-5, 12-4)
T.Dunbar & J.Ho beat N.Caplin & E.Taylor 3-0 (12-3, 12-5, 12-8)
Final
R.Houlden & H.Young beat T.Dunbar & J.Ho 3-0 (12-6, 12-8, 12-9)
Plate Final
P.Sathiyamoorthy & H.Etherington beat K.Hird & N.Shaw 15-14
Festival
Round One
C.Cooley & S.Cook beat H.Barma & B.Chen 12-7
T.Leach & B.Marshall-Rice beat O.Black & H.Barton-Smith 12-6
M.Chinery & R.Wood beat L.Drummond & T.Ford 12-10
D.Ingram & C.Dinmore beat N.Lilienthal & J.Grant-Peterkin 12-1
Quarter-Finals
D.Ingram & C.Dinmore beat V.Kassardjian & R.Swallow 15-10
A.Sivathasan & A.Kumararuban beat C.Cooley & S.Cook 15-6
O.Rushton & A.Shetty beat T.Leach & B.Marshall-Rice 15-11
M.Davis & A.Taylor beat M.Chinery & R.Wood 15-9
Semi-Finals
D.Ingram & C.Dinmore beat A.Sivathasan & A.Kumararuban 15-13
M.Davis & A.Taylor beat O.Rushton & A.Shetty 15-11
Final
D.Ingram & C.Dinmore beat M.Davis & A.Taylor 2-1 (12-9, 8-12, 12-7)
Quarter-Finalists Plate
Semi-Finals
C.Cooley & S.Cook beat V.Kassardjian & R.Swallow 10-6 (ret)
T.Leach & B.Marshall-Rice beat M.Chinery & R.Wood 12-7
Final
C.Cooley & S.Cook beat T.Leach & B.Marshall-Rice 12-7
Plate A
Semi-Finals
H.Barma & B.Chen beat N.Lilienthal & J.Grant-Peterkin 15-8
L.Drummond & T.Ford beat O.Black & H.Barton-Smith 15-9
Final
L.Drummond & T.Ford beat H.Barma & B.Chen 15-10
Plate B
Round One
H.Mercer & C.Warnes beat E.Thompson & J.Stewart 12-4
M.Williams & J.Shelley beat R.Byford & J.Hall 12-6
A.Patterson & G.Peters beat I.Luksch & A.Ukrasin 12-6
B.Wille & A.Hopkins beat J.Cooper & E.Siow 12-10
J.Servant & G.Notcutt beat B.Laws & M.Hodgkinson 12-9
Quarter-Finals
T.Stubbs & P.Boughton beat J.Servant & G.Notcutt 12-4
H.Mercer & C.Warnes beat M.Williams & J.Shelley 12-8
J.Lai & E.Collinson beat A.Patterson & G.Peters 12-6
C.Nkwocha & H.Steele beat B.Wille & A.Hopkins 12-10
Semi-Finals
H.Mercer & C.Warnes beat T.Stubbs & P.Boughton 12-8
J.Lai & E.Collinson beat C.Nkwocha & H.Steele 12-11
Final
H.Mercer & C.Warnes beat J.Lai & E.Collinson 12-5
Plate B2
Semi-Finals
M.Williams & J.Shelley beat J.Servant & G.Notcutt 12-3
A.Patterson & G.Peters beat B.Wille & A.Hopkins 12-8
Final
M.Williams & J.Shelley beat A.Patterson & G.Peters 12-8
3rd/4th
B.Wille & A.Hopkins beat J.Servant & G.Notcutt 12-10
Plate C (Round Robin)
1. R.Byford & J.Hall
2. B.Laws & M.Hodgkinson
3. J.Cooper & E.Siow
4. I.Luksch & A.Ukrasin
5. E.Thompson & J.Stewart
