Spring 2021 newsletter

Games

Fives is allowed - according to the government’s guidelines - to restart from Monday March 29 (as it’s been classified as an outdoor sport). 
We will play the Adams (on Sunday April 18, see below), play the Barber Cup quarter final, and hold fours and knockabouts.
The availability of courts is an issue. Highgate won’t open until mid-summer term. Westway isn’t booking until March 26. Mill Hill will be open and we have booked some dates already. If you’d like to play on the following dates, please let me know.   
- Sunday 4 April from 10.30 at Mill Hill

- Sunday 11 April from 10.30 at Mill Hill

- Sunday 18 April, from 10.30 at Mill Hill and this will be … 

The Adams Cup 

We are planning (if all goes to plan in tackling the pandemic) to hold an edition of the Adams Cup from 10.30 on Sunday April 18 at Mill Hill. (This is the one that should have happened last spring, so winners will have their names by the 2019/2020 date.)  Please do let me know if you’d like to play.  

Barber Cup run continues

We’re still in the Barber Cup. And because it's mid-March that must mean that we’re in the final. Hurray! Actually, we’ve still got our quarter final against the Salopians to play (after our first-round triumph away to the Ipswichians in December) and about to fix up a date. Update to follow.  

Citizen leads Cambridge Uni in Varsity match

Nick Choustikov is the captain of the Cambridge side this year and this is due to go ahead early May.  We have had a few Varsity captains in our time, but this is the first for many years so this is a red-letter day. I’ll supply details of time, date and venue so we can all have a day out to support. At the moment it’s due to be: Sunday May 2nd at Eton. Time TBA.

Podcast 

The EFA (actually the Cholms’ Emily Scoones and Zach Hickmore, who do a great job on the edit) have launched a fives podcast or Pepperpotcast as they style it. I was interviewed, and you could hear it here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1lagf4KznEW5zeYE0qIFlm

Old Versus Young - Youth Triumphs

The annual Old Versus Young match happened just before lockdown at Mill Hill. We mustered three pairs (thanks to four ringers) and youth proved irresistible.

 Sam Packer marshalled the Queen Victoria Street side this year, whose ranks were strengthened by four players who are still at university and able to play frequently: Saajan Shah (who's at Imperial and a regular at the Westway), Edwin Gosnell (in his second year at Oxford), Jivan Navani (doing a post-grad at Cambridge) and Nick Choustikov (captain at Cambridge this year but unable to take part because of a Covid-19 scare). Jacob Greenhouse has just left Oxford but is in London and is also playing regularly, so the squad is a healthy one and will only get stronger.

Next year is the 35th anniversary of the school's move from Victoria Embankment - it's little short of a miracle that the club is still alive, let alone thriving to the extent that it is. Perhaps we should mark the date with a special Old Vs Young match - there can't be many more of them with the current qualification criteria.

 As exiles, we are used to playing away from home but this was the first time we played this match on the courts at Mill Hill School - and very grateful we are too that the courts are available to be booked in this pandemic year.

Enormous thanks must go to our four guests: Ralph Morgan, John Robinson, Chris Lumbard and Ronald Pattison for rescuing the fixture at increasingly short notice (Ronald stepped up as late as Monday afternoon, as Johngee Grant was struck down) as Covid-19 and other health problems took their toll.

Queen Victoria Street 2 - 1 Victoria Embankment

Sam Packer and Edwin Gosnell lost to John Reynolds and Ralph Morgan 1-3

Jacob Greenhouse and Chris Lumbard beat Stephen Kelly and John Robinson 3-0

Jivan Navani and Saajan Shah beat Mark George Jacobs and Ronald Pattison 3-0.

Pictured above: our victorious 2020 Barber Cup side (again).me-rom-home, Highgate.$