St.Olave's Retain The Hughes Cup
03/03/25: St.Olave's retained the Hughes Cup in association with Advanta Wealth at Harrow yesterday.
The Hughes Cup is the U15 three pair team competition and was oen last year for the first time by St.Olave's. Having provided both finalists in last year's U14 schools' final, they went into this competition as heavy favourites and it was no surprise that they went through the day undefeated, winning all seven matches 3-0 in a series of mature and impressive performances.
A total of eight teams took part, with two each from St.Olave's, Eton and Shrewsbury joining Highgate and Harrow. Eton's U14 team and the Shrewsbury A team finished level on second place at the end of the round robin competition, with Eton taking second place having won the head to head between the two teams and showing that they will be keen to go one better next year.
Our thanks go to Ian Hutchinson and everyone at Harrow for hosting the event and to Advanta Wealth for their sponsorship.
1. St.Olave's A - 21 points
2. Eton B - 15 points
3. Shrewsbury A - 15 points
4. Harrow - 8 points
5. St.Olave's B - 8 points
6. Highgate - 6 points
7. Eton A - 6 points
8. Shrewsbury B - 4 points
Mark Williams reports:
Each team played every other team in a single game up to 12 over 3 pairs; the first pair being stronger than the second and the second pair being stronger than the third. Ties resolved by the result of the match between the two teams.
St Olave's 1 had a very strong team, some of whom had won in 2024; they achieved the rare feat of winning every single game they played, and werefar too good for their opponent s most of thetime. The one exception being the first pair match against the Eton Under 14 1st pair, who played out of their skins to reach sudden death, before the Olavians won the crucial point. Congratulations to St Olave's and their coaches for reaching such a high standard.
Eton 2 were composed entirely of Under 14s, and all six played gamely throughout. They had impressive wins against Shrewsbury 1, Harrow and Highgate, and finished second overall, which was a considerable achievement.
Shrewsbury 1 played consistently well all day, and were too good for many of their opponents. They had an excellent match against Eton 2 losing the first and second pairs very narrowly.
Harrow were missing a couple of key players and were only outclassed by the three teams above, but they dropped a pair to all the other teams. They were pleased to win the 'old firm' match against Eton 1.
St Olave's 2 played consistently all day, defeating Eton 1 and Shrewsbury 2, and winning a pair against Eton 2, Harrow, Highgate.
Highgate had a competitive first pair and beat St Olave's 2 and Shrewsbury 2, but they lost all three pairs narrrowly against Eton 1.
Eton 1 were all Under 15 and were missing some of their better players. They beat Shrewsbury 2, and narrowly lost to Harrow and Eton 2.
Shrewsbury 2 battled gamely all day, winning pairs against St Olave's 2, Highgate, Eton 1 and Harrow.
St.Olave's A: L.Whitnall, K.Bhavsar, C.Webley, A.Shetly, J.Thukalil, A.Healy
Eton B: A.Steel, A.Shi, A.Osei-Sarkodie, G.Floyd, W.Battersby, T.Driver
Shrewsbury A J.Edwards, A.Bararel, C.Dovaston, T.Miyakeri, C.Perks, S.Earles
Harrow: H.Murray, W.Venville, E.Jacold-Boinos, N.John-Brown, A.Witts, I.Corn, S.Sang, H.Griffiths
St.Olave's B: A.Gupta, D.Seycum, L.Behesheti, A.Kotni, A.Lutzow, A.Devakipalli
Highgate: A.Lee, E.Grahame, L.Orreriga, V.Maslovski, H.Makovits, C.Gandzig
Eton A: E.Harries, M.Holdsworth Hunt, A.Jenkins, C. Van Tienhoven, L.Lane Fox, H.Fawcett
Shrewsbury B: G.Jenkins, C.Huswell, R.Kundu, B.Morris, G.Athwal, J.Swallow, J.Ishiwakari
