After several years of comparatively clement weather (for February), a wet and windy weekend welcomed a total of forty-eight pairs, and a few hardy spectators. The entry for the main competition, at twenty-six pairs, was the highest for some years although the turn-out for the festival was a little disappointing. It was, however, good to see so many women taking part.
Murphy’s Law ensured that one of the bigger groups was held up by a shortage of courts and two of the longest matches in the pool stages, and eventually had to be left unfinished. Fortunately the two qualifying pairs could be identified, although the Shrewsbury School pair, Parker and Worth, had to forfeit their first knockout match due to injury. This meant that the tournament was back on schedule.
There were few surprises in the knockout stages, with the top four seeds progressing reasonably comfortably to the semi-finals.
The most competitive of the quarter-finals was probably between Howard Wiseman & Chris Cooley and Mark Lascelles & Tom Cox. In a best-of-five match, Lascelles & Cox could have won the second game and did win the third, before succumbing 3–1, late on Saturday evening.
On Sunday morning, the semis got underway and at first it seemed that both would be over pretty rapidly, as the top two seeds both won the first two games comfortably. Howard & Chris then hit a purple patch against Peter and Tom Dunbar, winning the third game quickly. However, the Dunbars reasserted their authority in the fourth, winning 12–5, 12–4, 3–12, 12–2.
Meanwhile, the other semi was turning into a real marathon. After losing the first two games 12–5, 12–3 against Matt Wiseman & James Toop, Ed Taylor & Richard Tyler won the next two 12–10, 12–9. However, they couldn’t quite keep it going in the fifth, with Wiseman & Toop edging it 12–8 after a battle lasting the best part of four hours.
Not surprisingly, there was a bit of a break before the final could get underway but, even after a rest, the effects of such a draining match probably played a major part in a fairly comfortable win for the Dunbars. Although the match was a more hard-fought than the scoreline suggests, Tom & Peter were always in control and ran out winners 12–3, 12–3, 12–2.
In Plate “A”, for losers from the last sixteen, Seb Cooley & Tim Fletcher and Mark Herring & George Campbell emerged from the two pools to contest the final, with Seb & Tim winning.
The other plate, for group stage losers, was won by Peter Cohen & Arun Kalra, who had swapped partners with, and then beat, Paran Sarmah & Sandy Fedorec.
A large contingent from the Lyceum Alpinum added an international flavour to proceedings although, with a predominance of schoolboys and girls, the age variances were less marked than usual. Indeed, the shortage of the more experienced players in the festival was the main disappointment of the weekend.
Nevertheless, those that were here seemed to enjoy the weekend, and there were a number of competitive matches, particularly in the top half of the knock-out draw. Here, Dave Smith & Alex Moore had to battle through two tight three game matches to get to the final. Here they met William Illingworth & Chris Michaels, who had a rather easier passage through.
The final too seems to have been a little one-sided, as Illingworth & Michaels won 12–6, 12–4, 12–7.
Results in the plate competitions have gone largely unrecorded and so, unfortunately, the winners will not be able to bask in the glory of public acclaim.
A.D.M.
Northern Championship Report 2004-2005 by Andrew Mitchell
Created 4th March 2005 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk