Last week saw the start of the competition Fives season with our U13s travelling to Eton for the qualifiers. Cranleigh entered five pairs with the top eight pairs on the day being invited back for the Elite finals at Harrow on 3rd Feb.
The day started with pairs being allocated to four groups with the top three moving through to the main competition. Four pairs qualified with only Jamie and James narrowly missing out after some fantastic performances against strong competition.
Spirits were high with three out of the four securing top places in their groups and therefore being seeded into the quarters. George and Avey did brilliantly well to progress through their play-off round securing a place both in the quarter-finals and qualification for finals.
With qualification to the finals secured the question which remained was who was going to triumph on the day. From four pairs in the quarters we succeeded in getting three pairs through to the semis with Avey and George losing to another Cranleigh pair. In the semis Wilbur and Freddie and Huxley and Josh went out after strong performances.
The final was undoubtedly the match of the day with Finn and Monty taking on Belmont 1 from North London. It was a tight and entertaining match with Cranleigh winning the first game before Belmont squared the match in the second. The third and deciding game went all the way to the wire before Belmont eventually ran out 12-9 winners on the day.
All the boys can take great pride from their performances. Congratulations to the qualifiers who will be in action again next month. It was wonderful to see everyone playing so well and improving their play.
