Houlden Proves To Be A Singular Man

06/05/25: Riki Houlden celebrated World Fives Day a day early with victory in the inaugural EFA Singles Tournament at Eton on Sunday.

The premise was simple: full-court Fives with only a couple of minor rule tweaks, but played without the safety net - or indeed the liability - of having a partner. Only for the brave or foolhardy perhaps, or at least definitely for the fit and able, but despite a couple of late defaulters (the reality of what was awaiting them hitting home perhaps?) ten players signed up and took part in a fascinating day's Fives which tested their fitness, tactical nous as well as their ability to master the Fives basics of an effective cut and a decent return.

The rules were those of a normal game of Fives with just a couple of adjustments, namely that each server got two serves before being cut down and that any cut which ended up in a position on court where it would normally be returned by the server's partner would be treated as a blackguard.

The first part of the day divided the field into two groups of five, with matches played to 12. The games generally went to form, but were not without interest, Hugo Young having to come from 3-8 down to win his opener against an initially inspired Nick Choustikov in Group B before going on to top the group and Alex Abrahams winning the crucial match 12-9 against Vishal Bhimjiyani to claim the runners-up spot, Viral Gudiwala coming fourth ahead of Choustikov.

The other group was dominated by tournament instigator and organiser Riki Houlden, while Isaac Weaver convincingly beat Tom McCahon, Matt Davis and Noah Caplin to make it into the last four, with Noah having to pull out injured.

Riki continued to cruise through in his semi-final against Alex, who had used up an awful lot more energy to reach the knockout stages than his opponent and found himself doing a lot of chasing just to stay in the rallies. The other semi-final was the best match of the day as Hugo took on Isaac. This match demonstrated the dual skillset needed to be a good singles player - a largely orthodox strong cut and return set piece coupled with a much more unorthodox rally strategy, aiming to manoeuvre your opponent around the court and create an opening either into the buttress or to the open back court. Isaac seemed to have the edge throughout once the players got into a rally, his athleticism, shotmaking, reach and power as well as his squash and Rugby Fives experience proving to be a real handful for Hugo. Hugo's style was a much more tradtional and orthodox Eton Fives one and his cutting and returning were superior to Isaac's over the course of the two games. This made for a fantastic match with the first game in particular nip and tuck all the way with the players never separated by more than two points. Hugo won it however and got off to a good start in the second. Isaac responded but was never quite able to get back on terms.

The final pitted two regular partners against each other as Riki & Hugo took each other on to become the first winners of the magnificent brand new trophy, which had very kindly donated by Riki's father Russ. It was probably fitting, therefore, that it was Riki who came through comfortably, his combination of set piece excellence, speed around the court and greater freshness at this late stage in the day too much for Hugo, who succumbed to a 5-12, 6-12 defeat.

Tom beat Vishal in the battle of the third placed players to win Plate A and in the absence of Noah, Matt Davis finished strongly with consecutive wins over Nick and Viral to claim Plate B.

This was an excellent day's Fives and well worth it's place as something a bit different at the end of season. Hopefully it will go on to become a regular event. Our thanks go to Eton for hosting the competition to the Houldens (father and son) for donating the trophy and for coming up with the idea and organising the day and to Advanta for their continued sponsorship.

Semi-Finals

R.Houlden beat A.Abrahams 2-0 (12-3, 12-2)

H.Young beat I.Weaver 2-0 (12-10, 12-8)

Final

R.Houlden beat H.Young 2-0 (12-5, 12-6)

Plate A

T.McCahon beat V.Bhimjiyani 2-0 (12-10, 12-4)

Plate B

Semi-Final

M.Davis beat N.Choustikov 15-14

Final

M.Davis beat V.Gudiwala 2-0 (12-4, 13-11)