Houlden Does The Singles Double

Riki Houlden reports:

05/05/26: This year’s Singles Championships entrants were welcomed by warm weather and a festive feel as the EFA’s inaugural Festival of Fives was being held on neighbouring courts.

Same as last year, we had ten entrants seeded according to the EFA Rankings List, with the relative seedings of two pairs of players overturned by head-to-head results during last year’s competition.

As such, Group A comprised Riki Houlden (1), James Toop (3), Tom McCahon (6), Richard Tyler (7), and Viral Gudiwala (10). This group went largely to form, with each player defeating those later in the list relatively comfortably. Of note, Tom kept close to James point-for-point until about 5-5, when a couple of unforced errors gave James the momentum needed to run away with the rest of the game 12-7. Richard, now 59 years old, signed up to the tournament with a message to me saying, “Maybe I will be the oldest player stupid enough to undertake this challenge!” but he very much proved the value of experience and hunger, keeping me at 2-2 in our game for long enough to start causing me concern. Being in the lens of The Telegraph may also have lit an extra fire in his belly! His cutting was of high quality and he consistently punished me for each of my loose cut returns. It was only after quite some physical attrition that his cuts started to lose their edge and I was able to take the rest of the points.

Viral has been off injured throughout the season with a broken collarbone, sustained whilst “being an idiot” (his words not mine), confirmed by an obligatory video viewing of him on a sandboard whilst holding onto a length of rope attached to a car, and predictably falling off onto his left shoulder. We’re glad to see him back on court and pain-free! My game against James involved quite a bit of running around, his Rugby fives drives down the line causing me to sprint off-court at speed into the wooden boards surrounding the new sports complex’s building works. I did feel and hear something plastic against my foot on one of these collisions, but with the ball still in-play I ignored it and continued chasing. It transpired at 2-0 that it was James’ lunch box and I had sent his food flying. The spectating Richard therefore announced a moral victory for my opponent, and James’ shock at my underhanded tactics (combined with perhaps an aim to conserve energy ahead of the Semi Finals) led to an unexpected 12-0 result.

Group B comprised Hugo Young (2), Alex Abrahams (4), Isaac Weaver (5), Adam Field (8), and Matt Davis (9). This group had a narrower spread of seedings and therefore also produced closer scores. Hugo made it through all of his games, though had a close call against his semi-final opponent from the previous Singles Champs, Isaac. He had caused him some trouble in their semi-final last year, with Hugo only narrowly winning 12-10, 12-8. In this single-set no-setting shootout there is even greater risk of a seeding upset, but Hugo just pulled through with another 12-10 victory.

The final round of the group stages saw the two closest seeded pairs pitted against one another: Alex vs Isaac, and Adam vs Matt. Adam is a skilled player with plenty of Div 1 experience, while Matt has been rapidly improving through his frequent play over the past few years. Adam showed the value of experience by taking an early lead and never really relinquishing it until he reached step at 11-4. Matt is made of tough stuff though, and had the power of bananas and a homemade keg of beer on his side. He slowly but surely clawed his way back saving game ball after game ball, until he had reached 11-11 sudden death. A successful return on his step led to a rally that could have been won by either player, and a slightly loose lob from Adam to the middle of back step presented Matt with a half-chance. Facing off-court and running backwards, Matt went for it, spinning his body mid-swing in mid-air to get the ball into the cutting angle and into the base of the buttress. The ball bounced twice before Adam could get to it, but the ball had gone just down on the front wall and Matt put his head in his hands. It was now Adam’s turn to serve again, and he needed no further warnings as he took the game this time around.

Isaac has been one to watch in the Singles, demonstrating how a background in Rugby fives contributes to superior rally play in both shot selection and court coverage to most players without that experience. Last year, Isaac upset seedings by beating Tom McCahon in the group stages and now he was out to get Tom’s regular NOEFC and Majors partner Alex Abrahams. This also represented a battle between last year’s semi-finalists and so was hotly anticipated. Both players demonstrated the impressive use of their wingspans to intercept high and wide balls that most players wouldn’t reach even if they jumped, as well as unbelievable coverage doing regular court sprints between the front and back. At about 6-6 though, the war of attrition was won by Isaac as a vicious cycle between mental fatigue and physical fatigue meant that Alex was no longer able to keep up, and the game ended 12-6. Isaac thereby upset the seedings for the second year in a row and booked himself a spot in the semi-finals yet again.

During the lunch break, Seb Cooley could be found after his limping-flying-monkey exhibition match with his swollen ankle elevated on a cushion under doctor’s orders. Despite the hindrance he was full of energy as he eagerly shared his observations with the Singles Champs players of the necessary adjustments to cutting, cut returning, and rally play when playing full-court 1v1 rather than standard doubles fives. It seems to have sparked his enthusiasm and interest, so perhaps we’ll be seeing another top ranked player joining us in 2027? He had also been planning on bringing a Shrewsbury pupil who had expressed interest in participating, but was unable to do so due to factors out of our control, and it would be fantastic to have our first pupil entrant as well. The tournament is enjoyed by players of a Div 2 2nd pair standard and above, and we now know it can be enjoyed at least up to the age of 59! So if you’re unsure, please do sign up and give it a go – if there is a very wide range of levels and a large enough entry, I plan to split the tournament into a Main and Festival much like the Majors.
A group photo was taken whilst we all still looked (semi-)fresh, and swiftly moved on to the afternoon knockout matches. While the top two players from each group had Semi Finals and a Final, those who placed between 3rd and 5th each had a best of 3 match against their counterpart in the other group.

Plate C was played between Matt and Viral, who had gone up against each other in last year’s plate as well. A similar performance led to a repeat win for Matt in two sets 12-10, 12-5, and Viral vowed to work on his cardio now that he was back on court. On asking whether his collarbone had caused him any trouble, he laughed and responded that he’s never been known to use his left arm anyway.

Plate B was between Richard and Adam, who had both shown the strength of experience over youth during the group stages against the Plate C finalists. Richard had expected himself to have been exhausted by this point as, in his own words, “It’s not quite my style,” to conserve energy across the course of a day, instead valiantly pushing himself hard to win regardless of the likely outcome. He therefore surprised himself as he then went on to fight through the entirety of the second longest match of the day. Adam worked him so hard that the sole of Richard’s shoe came off! Luckily, we had a shoeless Seb in the Constantinidi Fives Centre from whom footwear could be borrowed and this was a turning point for the match – though Adam had won the first game 12-3 (with cries of anguish from Richard regularly echoing across the courts), following the shoe-change the two players had a much tighter second game. 12-10 was the final score, but in Adam’s favour. The trick next time will be to borrow Seb’s souped-up shoes from the start.

Plate A pitted Tom and Alex against each other, a game they both looked forward to as regular partners. This is one of the key charms of the Singles Champs, as it gives you a level playing field on which to test yourself against your own partner, something that many players secretly (or sometimes not-so-secretly) wish to do. Due to a mixture of Tom’s fine form and Alex being more worn out from the morning’s group stages, this concluded as a closely contested 12-7, 14-12 win for the former in a match that they will no doubt like to repeat in future.

The first semi-final was between me and Isaac. He expressed his disappointment at having me as his opponent, wishing to have the opportunity to play against James as a fellow top Rugby fives player. I decided that the best way I could answer his prayers was to employ a few techniques from my former squash-playing experience. We shared several gut-wrenching rallies, and also laughter as we called a “taxi” when he got sent completely in the wrong direction, running off court as I played a drop shot disguised as a volley smash. His long reach in the air and in the back corners never fails to impress me. The final score was 12-6, 12-5.

The second semi-final was between Hugo and James, the 2nd and 3rd seeds. James is essentially a levelled-up version of Isaac, with greater experience and peak ability in both Eton fives and Rugby fives. Since Isaac had consistently come so close against Hugo in this tournament, this was a highly-anticipated match-up. What followed was easily the longest match of the day, and gathered a rather large crowd of spectators from amongst the other entrants as well as players from the neighbouring Festival of Fives. It was point-for-point, but the prevailing sentiment was that James was on top on the set piece, meaning that the rallies started in his favour. Hugo is made of grit and seems never to tire so would manage to keep the ball in play, but as each slightly loose shot is more heavily punished in Singles than in Doubles, and James would use his Rugby fives court awareness, movement, and shot selection to make it hard for Hugo to get back onto a level playing field. The first set was 12-9 in James’ favour. In the second set, though Hugo initially got ahead with a run of points, a similar playing dynamic to the first established itself and James gradually caught up to and then overtook Hugo, thereby making it to step first. The score remained at 11-9 and then 11-10 for a nail-biting 20 minutes. James missed out on two match ball opportunities during this time with unforced errors on the intended killing shot, but third time lucky he made it over the finish line before Hugo had a chance at serving on step.

The Final was therefore a repeat of the Group A game between myself and James. Now that he had no further matches for which he needed to conserve his energy, he demonstrated the incredible resilience and determination of a multiple Rugby fives and Eton fives champion. Unsurprisingly however, physical and mental fatigue had set in from the two extra hours of work in his legs than mine, and the final result was 12-3, 12-3. He was grateful though to have been able to play at such a high level despite nearing 44 years of age, and seemed pretty chuffed about the runner-up prize too.

Many thanks go to Ryan Perrie and Eton for hosting the tournament, to Gareth Hoskins for aiding me in organisation, to Alex Knight for presenting the prizes, to my father for sponsoring these, and to the players for making it an enjoyable day played in the very best of spirits.

Semi-Finals

R.Houlden beat I.Weaver 2-0 (12-6, 12-5)

J.Toop beat H.Young 2-0 (12-9, 12-10)

Final

R.Houlden beat J.Toop 2-0 (12-3, 12-3)

Plate A

T.McCahon beat A.Abrahams 2-0 (12-7, 14-12)

Plate B

A.Field beat R.Tyler 2-0 (12-3, 12-10)

Plate C

M.Davis beat V.Gudiwala 2-0 (12-10, 12-5)