Participating Schools: St Olave’s, St Bart’s Newbury, Oakham, Malvern, Westway, Lancing College, Bedford Modern School, Emanuel and Malvern.

Foreword
This year the Rossall schools championship saw a long awaited addition! An U15s event – as well as the Open category. In total there were over 75 entrants across the two categories, which is our highest entry in many years. We had all the usual schools enter as well as first time entry from Bedford Modern School. This years Championships saw many surprises as well as enormous overall improvement from so many players.

Under 15s
Rossall by far were the dominate force in this event by entering over 20 players in the singles and 10 pairs plus in the doubles. There were 8 pools. Each pool was one game to 11 with the top pairs going into the knock-out stages while the remaining pairs entered the Plate. Lancing College were 1st seeds in both the doubles (Jamie Betts & Michael Jones) and the singles (J. Betts). Jamie came top of his pool and breezed through the knock out stages to the final, as did the other singles finalist Alex Lewis (Rossall School). All spectators thought that it would be a well contested match just like both semi-finals but the Lancing 1st seed lost touch with the game while Alex kept hitting winning shot after shot. Rossall School took the singles title for the 1st time beating the Lancing 1st seed 11-4.

Alex Lewis (Rossall School) beat Jamie Betts (Lancing College) 11-4.

The doubles again saw a very large entry. In depth, it was the talented Bedford Modern school’s team who pushed most players through to the knock out stages. The pool stages again had many brilliant and close matches. After the opening rounds the seeded pairs had warmed up and the level of play increased. The 1st seeds Jamie and Michael Jones (Lancing college) made it to the final with ease; their opponents, Rossall 1, made it to the final by beating Bedford 4 in a close semi-final match, winning by just one point. The Lancing team were ready to take on Rossall. It was a close well contest match with Rossall School taking the Doubles title, beating Lancing 11-7.

The Open
The Open event had a slightly smaller entry but hosted the highest standard that we have had in the past few years. The singles had 8 pools of three or four players in each while the doubles had 4 pools with roughly 3 or 4 pairs in each due to additional pairs from Rossall School entering at the last minute. Malvern School, who has an incredible record in this event came back this year as defending champions of the Open singles and doubles. The standard of this year’s event showed that there were challengers to take the title from Malvern. The pools in both categories were action packed with some very close matches, again the seeded players made it through to the knock out stages. The singles event saw Malvern 1, Lancing 1, Olave’s 6 & 3 reach the semi-final. In the 1st semi-final Malvern 1 cruised through to the final beating lancing 1, 11-2 while Olave’s 3 beat Olave’s 6 in a cracking match winning 11-8. Malvern 1 defended the title with a brilliant start, making the Olavian player chase throughout the match - but the lead was too great. Malvern 1 beat Olave’s 1, 15-5.

Malvern 1 beat St Olave’s 3, 15-5

The Doubles saw 4 different schools reach the semi-finals, St Olave’s, Rossall, Lancing and Malvern. In the 1st Semi-final the Malvern 1st seeds were pushed to the limit while the Olavian pair steamed ahead. Malvern chased and pulled it back to 9-9. The Olavian pair could not convert their lead. Malvern’s experience lead them to an 11-9 win and a place in the final. The 2nd semi-final was just as close both fighting neck and neck to get into the final. Rossall 1 and Lancing 1 made it to 10-10 leaving the pairs having to play to 12. Rossall beat the lancing pair of Tom Betts and Mylo Scurr 12-10 – a match that could have gone either way! The final was a close game also. Malvern were always one step ahead and Rossall always chasing. Malvern took the title and the double of this open category, beating Rossall 11-9.

Malvern 1 beat Rossall 1, 11-9

It is especially noteworthy that for the first eight years of REFCA running this event, we only saw the occasional glimpse of Fives activity from Rossall school pupils. Suddenly, everything has changed for the better!! Fives has exploded at the school thanks to the arrival of two dedicated REFCA Fives/sports gap-year students and of course, the all-important arrival of Mr.Tom Root – the Master-in-charge!! Congratulations to Rossall school for such a rapid and impressive re-emergence onto the Fives scene.

Results
Doubles Open:
Malvern beat Rossall

Singles Open
Malvern beat Lancing

Under 15 Doubles
Rossall beat Lancing

Under 15 Singles
Rossall beat Lancing

D.E.A.R.

Rossall Schools International report by Dominique Redmond
Finalised 28th January 2009 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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