Fives
In past years, St Paul’s has sometimes dominated national school fives, but in this year’s West of England National Schools Tournament (held at Sherborne, 8–9 January) we faced some stiff competition.
In the Senior singles, Richard Law, Sam Russell, Francis Thomas, Jacob Ader and Jack Malde all progressed, with Jacob and Jack reaching the quarter-finals, and Jack winning through to the semis — where the eventual winner and clear favourite (Luke Thomson from Christ’s Hospital) was simply too fast and accurate. At one stage it looked as though David Ashman and Sri Ram Prince might make it an all St Paul’s plate final, but they were knocked out by the semi-finals in some hard hitting games. In the Senior doubles, Ader and Malde, our top pair, narrowly missed out on a place in the final, losing in a close match to Winchester (11–9, 6–11, 11–4). Thomas and Russell scored a satisfying victory (12–10, 12–11) over Derby Moor to reach the semi-finals, where they were outgunned by Christ’s Hospital.
In the Colts singles, Matt Shaw never looked troubled in the final, taking the title 11–3, 11–3, his power and precision proving impressive. In his semi-final, he was pushed all the way by Fifth former Yul Kahn-Pascual, a player who shows great promise. Ben Beltrami, our other Fifth former in the Colts competition, also showed great maturity and talent, making it through to the last eight by beating several boys who were a year older than him, including our own Neal Pabari. Tim Edmonds and Aurélien Guéroult came up against tough opposition in the early stages and had to make do with the plate, where Tim lost a close semi-final (15–12) to the eventual winner. In the Colts doubles, our three pairs got as far as the quarter-finals.
