Next Year’s Past v. Present - Put it in your diaries now!! Saturday, February 12th, 201 – with partners.
Not a year goes by without major glitches in the running of the Past versus Present – and this year was no exception. As the Match Manager waited at the Oundle courts for his four volunteers to turn up and play Singles against the Present he began to get a sinking feeling. No one arrived at the appointed hour, not even the Present. But then undergraduates rarely arrive on time, so that was no surprise. In fact the first to turn up, hardly late at all, was Brian Elfick, to play for the Past, accompanied by James Stevens who had offered his services in the Doubles and had most likely spent an uncomfortable night on Brian’s floor. Next came the entire Cambridge squad, some still eating their breakfast. Well, you can’t play Fives on an empty stomach.
But by nearly midday no sign of Andy Pringle, Charlie Brooks or Iain de Weymarn. Then the mobiles began to ring. A major hold-up on the A1, bridges over the Thames closed, leaves on the line at Balham, wrong kind of snow at Folkestone. It all had a depressingly familiar ring to it. If only we’d arranged for Joe Gribble to come as cover…
Golf Trivia: Congratulations to Charlie Dewhurst, who played in last year’s Varsity Match, on being awarded his Golf Blue this year. Is Charlie the first Sparrow to achieve this distinction? Kenneth Gandar Dower certainly didn’t, though he did represent Cambridge in seven sports!
Gradually, though, the traffic released and the afore-mentioned members of the Past dribbled in to play. Brian meanwhile had been unable to contain his enthusiasm and had got on court to play freshman Luke Rowland. Lucky it was that the two of them got an early start, as it took some time for Luke to gradually work out how to grind Brian down. By the time Brian had gone down to an heroic 14-16 defeat (Joe couldn’t have engineered it better), the others were warming up for what proved to be rather shorter matches. Charlie Brooks, in regular tournament competition these days, proved too strong for Elliott Malone, who drew the short straw and played at Number One. Similarly Andy Pringle, also having regular competitive play and a successful season in the tournaments, overwhelmed captain Alqahir Ladak. Iain de Weymarn was forced to do some quantitative easing to make up for the previous two hefty victories, allowing Charles Compton to notch up a well deserved 15-10 victory, which meant the Past had a lead of 18 at the turn. And what’s more, lunch could still be squeezed in before the Doubles.
Passport Trivia: Is Luke Rowland, a freshman who played this year in the Varsity Match, our first Sparrow to hold Australian nationality?
After lunch Brooks and Elfick teamed up for just two games, to test the mettle of new Cambridge pairing Malone and Rowland. These two did a pretty good job in getting 11 points over the two games and cemented their place for the Varsity Match. Andy Pringle paired up with evergreen Joe Gribble, another left-right duo, to give Alqahir Ladak and Charles Compton an equally challenging work-out. In the one game which Andy & Joe played against Malone & Rowland, though, they really had to work hard to come through 16-15.
Decennial Trivia: Jez Fabes, a former Captain of CURFC, first played in the Varsity Match in 2000. This year, ten years on, he played for Oxford. Not even Ian Jackson or David Arnold can match that!
James Birch and James Stevens were the Past’s third pair, also left-and-right, a tough proposition for Peter Gwynn & Fred Beardmore and then for Tim Hennock & Richard Tunnard. And if that wasn’t a formidable enough line-up for the Past, the so-called fourth pair of perennial Martin Robinson & Martin Wilkinson proved far too skilled, experienced, wily (etc., etc.) for their young opponents. The Past in fact won every game of Doubles, but the Present were without the services of four players who would certainly make the Cambridge VIII under normal circumstances, so there was little dishonour for the lads in losing the match by 122-280.
High speed trivia: Andy Pringle, our esteemed General Secretary of the RFA, recently drove the stretch between Musselburgh and Clapham in 6½ hours (the things people do for a decent game of Fives!). How quickly might he have driven Great St. Mary’s to Marble Arch via Baldock and Royston in the early hours of the morning, as was the craze in the 60s? Like breaking the record for the shortest time passing through all stations on the London Underground in a day. Answers please on a postcard from Chipping Ongar.
After the usual refreshments and handing-out of Sparrows ties in The Pickerel, it was on to the Parlour for drinks, where the players were joined by Dennis Silk, Michael Allen, Richard Jefferson, David Hares, David Barnes, Andrew Lewis, Peter Cameron, Chris Bascombe, Don Ellwood, Tony Palmer, last year’s captain (not playing?!) Chris Jones, Rupert Walter and Bob Dolby. At the ensuing 61st Jock Burnet Dinner in Ramsay Hall there were no speeches, just a few words each from the President and the Captain, and finally the Trapnell Tankard was entrusted to the care of the Past’s captain-for-the-day, Joe Gribble.
Congratulations to Anand Ashok who fitted in a Cricket Blue between his two appearances for CURFC versus Oxford. ‘Schock’ was presented with the 2009 Walter Lawrence Trophy award for his unbeaten 164 in the Varsity Match at Fenner’s in 2009. He became the third recipient of a silver medallion and a substantial cash prize. Another in the noble parade of cricket-playing Sparrows.
The Varsity Match: I include the Match Referee’s Report on the 80th Varsity Match: It says it all.
Sport can sometimes kick you when you’re down, and this year’s Varsity Match at St. Paul’s was a cruel example of this for the losing team. Oxford were almost unchanged from last year’s victorious eight – only adding freshman Hine to give them extra fire-power in the doubles – while Cambridge, still without home courts, were forced to field a side weakened by a combination of illness and unavoidable absence. This inevitably led to something of a mismatch, at least as far as the scores were concerned.
Oxford, led by British Universities and National Under 25 champion Tristão, boasted a formidable singles line-up, including some seasoned veterans. Fabes at two, a winning captain for Cambridge back in 2002, and Ronan at three had each played in four previous Varsity Matches. In the event, Oxford’s top three overwhelmed their less experienced though talented opponents, Malone, Ladak and Rowland; while at four last year’s captain, Park, beat the Cambridge secretary Compton with something to spare. Sixty points to eight was the score at lunch.
The doubles brought Cambridge no relief, as none of their pairs was able to make any real impression on the well-balanced Oxford line-up. The third and fourth Oxford pairs played as well as any of recent years and gave Cambridge little chance. The first eight games of doubles were so conclusive that the result of the match was already determined by that stage, with none of the Cambridge pairs reaching double figures in any game.
The question now was this: could Oxford keep pressing to create a remarkable record by scoring three hundred points and limiting their opponents to fewer than fifty? Despite whole-hearted resistance from Cambridge, they managed to achieve this aim, conceding only thirty-eight points overall while amassing a maximum – the first time since the very first Varsity Match in 1925 that the winning margin has been over 250 points.
No significant progress has yet been announced on the West Cambridge site, where a Sports Centre with Rugby and Eton Fives courts has been planned for a number of years, without attracting enough funding so far. Please sign the petition on the website www.800yearswithnosportscentre.org if you are interested in supporting the campaign to get this facility. Readers of The Hawk Easter 2010 will know that there are some encouraging signs of activity in the University but not enough to enable us to put any kind of date on the realisation of the project.
Cambridge Successes: Congratulations to Charlie Brooks, Ben Taberner and Andy Pringle on making the final stages of the Cyriax Cup for National Doubles (though none of them with a Sparrow as partner – indeed, in Alan Beverly’s absence Charlie paired up with ex-Oxford captain James Bristow!); Andy won the Plate with Tom Dean. Andy also won both the Singles and the Doubles Plate at the Scottish Championships this year; and was then runner-up with Emma Howie from the Derby Moor Club in the Winchester Mixed Doubles. Charlie and Bristow were runners-up in the North West Open Doubles, and Charlie won the Singles Plate there and the Doubles Plate at the U25s with Chris Hay. Ben Taberner teamed up with Hamish Buchanan from the Alleyn Old Boys to win the 2009 Yorkshire Doubles, as well as being part of the Manchester squad that won the Wood (Club Knockout) Cup for the fifth consecutive year. Jez Fabes was runner-up in both the Singles and the Doubles (with Ed Ronan) at the 2009 BUCS championships, playing this time for Oxford. At the Ladies National Championship at St. Paul's Emmalina Thompsell (Caius) and Charlie Farquharson-Roberts (Emmanuel) won the Doubles Plate. Charlotta Cooley (ex-Girton) won the Singles Plate. All three are primarily Eton Fives players but we hope to see them playing more of the 4-wall game in the future!
Christopher Martin-Jenkins was awarded the MBE in the New Year Honours 2009 for services to cricketing journalism. Chris played in the Rugby Fives Varsity Match in 1966 and 1967.
Valete: PM McDowell (Christ’s Hospital & Trinity Hall) who played in 1948. Paddy McDowell spent most of his career in the ice cream business, switching in later years to supply teaching, which he did until required to retire at the age of 73!
Bob Dolby, 26 Waverley Avenue, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 1HZ
(Telephone: 0115 - 925 2845; e-mail: bobdolby5@btinternet.com).
Saturday, February 20th at St. Paul’s School
| Cambridge | Oxford | |
| Singles | ||
| ER Malone (St. Paul’s & Churchill) |
lost to DC Tristao (Captain) (St. Paul’s & Lincoln) |
0-15 |
| A Ladak (Captain) (St. Paul’s & Christ’s) |
lost to J Fabes (Clifton & Green) |
0-15 |
| LO Rowland (St Paul’s & Fitzwilliam) |
lost to EO Ronan (Bradfield & Linacre) |
2-15 |
| CK Compton (Hon. Sec.) (Eastbourne& St. John’s) |
lost to DM Park (Sherborne & St. Catherine’s) |
6-15 |
| 8-60 | ||
| Doubles | ||
| Malone and Rowland | v. Fabes and Ronan | 3-15 1-15 |
| v. Tristao and ML Hine (St. Paul’s & St. John’s) |
2-15 0-15 |
|
| Ladak and Compton | v. Tristao and ML Hine (St. Paul’s & St. John’s) |
2-15 2-15 |
| v. Fabes and Ronan | 0-15 1-15 |
|
| PN Gwynn (Radley & Trinity) and FSW Beardmore (St. Paul’s & Clare) |
v. TJ Hoolahan (St. Paul’s & Christ Church) and JC Baker (St. Paul’s & Pembroke) (Sec.) |
2-15 2-15 |
| v. Park and SJ Adcock (Eastbourne & St. Edmund Hall) |
2-15 0-15 |
|
| A Ashok (St. Paul’s & Queens’) and TPR Hennock (Christ’s Hosp. & Trinity) |
v. Park and Adcock | 3-15 4-15 |
| v. Hoolahan and Baker | 5-15 1-15 |
|
| 30-240 | ||
| 38-300 | ||
Cambridge now counts 50 wins against 30 by Oxford.
There was no Sparrows versus Beavers match.