Whilst the papers were all covering the weekend’s other sporting attractions (Tour de France, Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix), the sun was shining in south-west London for another reason - 60 male and 10 female competitors descended on St Paul’s School for the first City Fives Association British 1-wall Doubles competition.

For many, this was their first taste of 1-wall Fives, and for some it was their first taste of fives, but it was a great opportunity to see Eton and Rugby Fives players competing on a level playing field. Given this, we were lucky to have five of the top 20 RFA singles players and six of this year’s Kinnaird quarter-finalists, as well as BUSA, U25 and Ladies champions from both codes. The stage was set for an exciting and unpredictable day – who would adapt best to this new version of Fives?

Men’s Competition
Following registration, the distribution of tournament t-shirts, and a quick explanation of the rules (games were the best of three sets - the first two to 21, with the decider being played to 11) play started on all four courts. Two of the matches of the tournament took place in the first round. The first pitted Derby Moor schoolboys, Matt Orr and Ashley Hill against Oxford University Eton Fives players, Will Betts and Akshay Agrawal. The mixture of styles was fascinating with both pairs quickly learning the tactics of 1-wall, but it was the Oxford pair that just scraped home 11-7 in the third. It was a similar story in the other clash of the round, an all Rugby Fives clash between Old Paulines Adrian Lee and Ian Mogford, against UCL’s Dan Grant and Freddie Sjostrom. The power and speed of all four players was outstanding but in the end Adrian and Ian’s kill shots at the front won them a well deserved victory 11-7 in the third.

As there is no bar or ledge in 1-wall, the kill shot is critical. If you can hold the front part of the court, it is possible to make the ball roll off the front wall giving your opponents no chance of returning the ball. Even experienced pairs can come unstuck if they give their opponents too many opportunities to play this shot, and it was exactly that shot that nearly gave Chris Borrows (Oundle School/RFA) and Stewart Fautly (Old Olavian/EFA) an unexpected second round victory against Hamish Buchanan and Howard Wiseman. Having lost the first set and being down in the second, Chris and Stewart began finding their length to turn the match around. They took the second set, and there was nothing between them in the third as the match reached 10-10. Eventually Hamish and Howard pulled clear by the necessary 2 points to win 16-14.

One thing was beginning to show though and that was that prior experience, no matter how small, of the 1-wall game was priceless. In the top half of the draw Ian and Adrian continued their run to knock-out the 4th seeds (Eton) and the 5th seeds (Rugby) to reach the semi-finals, where they met James Toop and Matt Wiseman. All four players had been to Ireland with the England Schools Team in 1999, and had played 1-wall before. The result was an exciting match. Adrian and Ian comfortably led the first set, driving Matt and James back before holding the front court and playing a string of excellent winners. At 18-9 down, Matt and James began to turn things around and whilst they lost the set 22-20, they had built momentum which helped them to take the second set. By now, roles were reversed and in set 3, with James up court, Matt began playing a string of winners from the right hand side which took them to well-deserved 11-5 win. In the other semi-final, Dave Mew and Pete Cohen (Old Olavians/EFA), played Hamish and Howard. While Pete and Dave won in straight games, the Irish Handball Council’s Tom O’Connor was impressed at the high standard of play of both pairs. Both Pete and Hamish had previously played 1-wall at the World Championships in Canada and Ireland.

The final was finely balanced then and would come down to the pair that could play consistent deep shots to the back, whilst holding the front of the court and killing the ball at the first opportunity. In the first set Matt and James managed to hold serve and execute this strategy more effectively to win 21-9, despite some excellent volleying and retrieving from Dave at the front of the court. They continued this form into the second taking a 16-7 lead, before Pete’s right arm began to fire. With Matt and James’ service returns falling too short, for a period of ten minutes, Pete killed every ball at the front to bring his pair back into the match. At 20-20, it was anyone’s game but with without side walls the margins are fine and a ball that narrowly dropped out of the sidelines handed service over to Matt and James, and they took the final two points to seal the first British 1-wall Doubles title.

Women’s Competition
The women’s featured five pairs, including two who were completely new to the sport. The format was a round-robin with the top two pairs meeting in the final.

In the end it was the three experienced pairs fighting it out for places in the final. Dom and Leah Redmond finished top and were joined by Sian Evans and Helen Toop, who edged out Emma Wells and Anita Ganguly 21-15 in the deciding game.

The final saw some long and exciting rallies. Both pairs had adapted well to 1-wall over the course of the day and while the kill shot did not play as big a role as in the men’s game, the power of Dom and Leah to the back of the court made all the difference as they won the final 21-9, 21-11.

England Internationals and Thank You
Thank you to all players for taking part and supporting the CFA. The competition was also intended to select an England team for International Matches in Italy and Spain later this year. Watch this space, but there might be some international silverware returning at Christmas time!

Thank you to Legal and General Group and Strathmore Still Spring Water for their support of the competition and St Paul’s for the use of the facilities. Also, thanks to members of the CFA board for their help in organising various parts of the competition; Helen Toop, for running the Ladies competition and the t-shirts, Pete Cohen for arranging sponsorship, Sanjaya Ranasinghe and Pete White for running the competition on the day, Steve Piper for helping to mark out courts, Andy Pringle for the photos and Alex Smith for registration. Finally, a huge thank you to Mrs Toop and Gemma Reece who spent part of their Friday night preparing lunch for the next day!

Next year, we plan to expand the competitions to hold a singles and doubles, as well as some internationals in England. I look forward to seeing you on a 1-wall Fives court again soon!

Results
Quarter-Finals
M.Wiseman and J.Toop beat E. Hatton and M. Bate
21-1, 21-6
A. Lee and I. Mogford beat E. Fuller and B. Hitchens
21-16, 21-2
D. Mew and P. Cohen beat P. White and S. Ransinghe
21-11, 23-21
H. Buchanan and H. Wiseman beat O. Stone-Lee and S. Korris
21-12, 21-8

Semi-Finals
M. Wiseman and J. Toop beat A. Lee and I. Mogford
20-22, 21-11, 11-5
D. Mew and P.Cohen beat H. Wiseman and H. Buchanan
21-13, 21-15

Final
M. Wiseman and J. Toop beat D. Mew and P. Cohen
21-9, 22-20

Plate
D.Grant and F. Sjostrom beat A. Hill and M. Orr
21-7, 21-9

Women's Final
D. Redmond and L. Redmond beat H. Toop and S. Evans
21-9, 21-11

J.P.T.

City Fives Association British Open 2007 - Report by James Toop
Created 21st January 2008 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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