The Brigands Silver Salver 2025
Tom Leach reports:
24/11/25: This year's first 'Brigands Major', the coveted Silver Salver, took place on a chilly Wednesday, 19th November, at Charterhouse.
Lining up for the Silver Salver were several silver foxes and - extending the vulpine metaphor - a few bald foxes, a vixen and a couple of club cubs.
Rod Smart, Tom Leach, Alex Knight, Nick Bourne, Martin Powell, Alan Taylor (sic), Jamie Hepburn, Grant Smith, Sandy Savage, James Young, Stuart Clarke, Matt Davis, Kristiana Smilovska, Jan Michalski-Leach, Bertie Marshall-Rice and Justin Adie completed the Dirty Sixteen who were to fight it out over the ensuing two and a half hours.
With Richard 'Vorderman' Murray expertly juggling the scoreboard and a Gladiator-style whistle, the first series of three 25-minute games got underway over four courts.
Ladder-style, those in the lead after 25 minutes would go up (or, if in the top court, stay put) whilst losers would go down (or stay in the bottom court). In each case the winning/losing partners would be split up and invited to play with a different partner for the next round. Confused? So were we.
Almost all the matches in all the courts were incredibly close with pairs often hanging on by their fingertips to a marginal lead until the final whistle. Perhaps Bertie and Big Alan were the two players most unfortunate not to make it through to the knockout rounds at one point finding themselves 7-4 to the good against Tom & Stuart before slipping 9-10 behind at the whistle. A special mention must go to Martin for putting his two fingers up at the seeding committee by battling all the way up from the bottom court to find his way into the top courts and therefore the business end of the tournament.
After the preparatory matches, the top two courts became the semi-finals pitching Stuart Clarke & Alex Knight in Court Zero against Grant Smith and Tom Leach... ...whilst Court One hosted Jamie Hepburn and Justin Adie against Matt Davis and the aforementioned Martin Powell.
Possibly still fuelled by the previous night's Guinness and Jagerbombs in Oxford (but having thankfully for all concerned on this occasion abstained from Hassan's Broad Street kebabs) and still with the 'No Scotland, No Party' refrain playing in his head, Tom and partner Grant managed to run away with the first semi 12-3 whilst the indefatigable Matt on Court 1 with steady support from Martin found themselves at 6-6 in a tight rubber against Jamie & Justin before just finding the required after-burners that would take them into a winning position. That was a long sentence.
The final, then, pitched Grant & Tom against Matt & Martin into a race to 12 on Court Zero.
A close match featuring some mean cutting, awesome back-court shots, the occasional decent volley and some inevitable fluffs alongside plenty of loud Anglo-Saxon shrieks kept a throng of a dozen or so onlookers entertained until gone 9pm.
Grant & Tom eventually did just enough to keep their noses in front despite fine Fives from Martin and Matt and were happy to accept the beautiful Silver Salver in The Stag at Eashing from Rod along with partaking of some much-needed, restorative refreshments.
The Brigands play every Wednesday in the Fives season (and sometimes beyond) from 6.30pm onwards at Charterhouse before retiring to the Stag for rehydration. There are usually 3 or 4 courts in action each week on club nights and also some friendly matches against opposition such as Newbury, Charterhouse, Windsor & Eton, Old Lancing, North Oxford and the Old Carthusians. If you are located nearby and fancy some Fives, please reach out and come and join us (unless you are very good).
