25 pairs took part in this year’s Mixed Championship, with many individuals making a large commitment to be there and travelling to Eton from far and wide: Manchester, Brighton, Fleetwood and Shrewsbury for example. This year we received many entries from schoolgirls from St Olave’s and St Bartholomew’s as well as a good turnout from the Cambridge University Ladies Fives club.

This year we had several pairs all of a similarly high standard battling it out for the title. We started as usual with pool stages with five or six pairs in each pool, with the top three qualifying for the main knock-out tournament and the remaining pairs going into various plate competitions. The pool stages as usual contained many well-contested matches.

The quarter-finals were also close with defending champions Seb and Charlotta Cooley getting their campaign off to a good start, beating Peter White and Emmalina Thompsell. First time pairing Fiona Barnes and Grant Williams beat Marianne Rees and Dave Mew in a very close game, whilst Howard Wiseman and Dominique Redmond along with Kerry White and Peter Cohen, the second and third seeds respectively, also made it through to the semi-finals.

The semi-finals were again no pushover for the top seeds with Seb and Charlotta taking on Fiona and Grant in an amazing match with fast movement and volleying from Seb and great top step play by Fiona. The defending champions took the match after a good run of points toward the end of both games. The other semi-final saw a more familiar match-up with the exception of Peter Cohen, partnering Kerry for the first time. This match went to the third and final game with great cutting from Dominique and top step play from Howard but Peter’s fast and powerful shots helped Kerry and Peter gain a place in the final.

The final was a match of the dinosaur versus the ferret with Peter slamming the ball left, right and centre and Seb running around the court in double-quick time, while the girls coped impressively with whatever came their way. This was again a three game match and was so level it was anyone’s game until almost the final point. With fast volleying and pin-point accuracy the Cooley pair managed to snatch victory right at the death, coming through 12-9 in the third game.

Gareth Hoskins presented the Mixed Championship trophy to the winners, Charlotta and Seb Cooley. I would like to thank all who took part and also Howard Wiseman for running the event on the day in his usual highly efficient manner, and I hope to see you all next year!

Quarter-Finals:
D Redmond & H Wiseman beat J Browning & D Foster
12-7, 12-4
K White & P Cohen beat A Lumbard & A Theodossi
12-9, 12-7
C Cooley & S Cooley beat P White & E Thompsell
12-7, 12-7
F Barnes & G Williams beat M Rees & D Mew
12-7, 12-9

Semi-Finals:
K White & P Cohen beat D Redmond & H Wiseman
10-12, 12-10, 12-9
C Cooley & S Cooley beat F Barnes & G Williams
12-8, 12-8

Final:
C Cooley & S Cooley beat K White & P Cohen
13-12, 13-15, 12-9

D.E.A.R.

Report by Dominique Redmond
Finalised 3rd May 2009 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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