Old Citizens EFC report for season 2013/4
The OCEFC's 121st season – records show that the OCEFC was founded in 1893 – has seen a total of about 55 people travel on trips abroad, play in our two internal trophies, represent us in our two league teams and come along to our Thursday practices at Highgate.
We visited the mountains of Switzerland in the autumn, to help the Zuozers celebrate the 50th anniversary of their courts in Zurich. Geoff Bates, David Cooper, Gordon Stringer and David White returned to the courts where they had played in the 1950s and 1960s. Mark George Jacobs, Rachel Douek, Ralph Morgan, Pete Chen and John Reynolds tagged along to join a party of about 50 from all over the world play fives on the courts of the Lyceum Alpinum in Zuoz.
Our Thursday evening practices have been busy - often running to three courts. We continue to attract players from around the fives circuit, including a growing number of women.
Some of those Thursday players are from the school: perhaps half a dozen CLS boys have come along over the course of the year, including Harrison Jones, Jonah Taylor, CLS captain Jivan Navani, Henry Davidson, and Jacob Greenhouse, the last four of whom are pictured in that order below, at the national schools' championships at Eton, in which the middle two won a plate - also pictured. The school's coach, Matt Wiseman, deserves our heartfelt thanks for all his help and encouragement.
Sam Packer starred in the first pair for the Oxford Peppers as they beat Cambridge Penguins 3-0.
Alex Nice and Ralph Morgan represented the club in the Kinnaird - and may even have got as far as a plate final.
George Jacobs and Stephen Kelly played together in the Veterans tournament.
The Wood Plate, with which 16 of us opened the season, was won by Mark Stockton and Sam Packer, who beat Bobby Friedman and guest Pete Chen in the final.
The Adams Cup attracted 19, and was won by John Gee-Grant for the second year running, this time with Jonny Powell.
We've run two league teams again this year, using a pool of about twenty players. Our second division side has come fourth or possibly third out of ten. Our third division side has come bottom out of six. Alex Nice ran both sides most efficiently.
The Barber Cup - the game's premier knockout competition - was a bit of a disaster, as we failed to get our strongest available team out and were dispatched in the first round.
Some 18 of us enjoyed very convivial meal at the Royal Society of Medicine in Wimpole Street, access courtesy Stephen Mullin. Picture below.