Alexandre de Senger Completes Double

Fives Club

Alexandre de Senger Completes Double

Alexandre de Senger won the Zürich International competition in October to complete a double triumph, after winning the Benny Oei Trophy in Geneva a few weeks before.

The Geneva/Zurich fives competition double has never been done before in the eight years since the Zurich event was founded (the tournament in Geneva has been going for about 25 years now).

Alexandre won with his partner for the day, John Reynolds, the English player after whom the trophy was named. They beat Alexander Heuberger and David in the final, by a score of 12–7.

John Reynolds said: «The trophy was generously named after me (not actually sure why, but I feel very honoured). And I’m delighted to have got my name on the winners’ plaque – I’ve played in every edition of the contest since then (I think) and have played in a final or two but haven’t actually won it, until now.»

PARTICIPANTS AND RESULTS

There were 18 competitors, and the fives lasted all day. The hosts, as ever, were the Büchi family: Club president Felix, his sister Leandra, the paterfamilias Dieter and the whole Zurich-based club.

The 18 competitors included four players who had learned their fives at the City of London School in the heart of the English capital. These so-called «Old Citizens» were: London residents John Reynolds and Stephen Kelly, plus Geneva resident Alex Kasterine and Bonn resident Martin East.

These four men played a match against their hosts for the Hawken-Garrett Cup and won by the smallest margin: 1.5 vs 0.5. • Alexander Kasterine and John Reynolds beat Fenno Brakel and Steve Kronenberg 3–0. • Stephen Kelly and Martin East drew with Alexandre de Senger and Florian G’tier 2–2.

Everybody then went to the nearby Geeren restaurant for magnificent Rösti and Speck.

THE OLD ZUOZERS AND THE OLD CITIZENS

The two clubs, the «Old Zuozers» and the «Old Citizens», have been competing for the Hawken-Garrett Cup for six years – whenever and wherever Citizen and Zuozer fives players meet, they play a round. The cup is named after the two Old Citizens who were instrumental in starting up the fives club after World War II. They then began visiting the Lyceum Alpinum in Zuoz in the 1950s.

The OCEFC and the Lyceum have a fives history stretching back to the 1920s, when a Lyceum touring team played the Old Citizens in a match at the Queen’s Club.

John