* Milne Hue Williams 2025

In the 2025 Milne Hue Williams, held at Queen’s on 4^th May 2025, initial Group matches produced a semi-final line-up in which Winchester (Hamish Duncan & Igor Utkin) played Eton II (Hector Brown & Alfred Brown), followed by Cheltenham I (Max Kwintner & Joe Coley) playing Eton I (Wilf Walker & Peter Compton-Burnett). Winchester breezed through their semi 15/3 15/2. The second semi was a most entertaining contest with lots of exciting, hard-hitting rallies. Max and Joe led 9-4 and 12-5 in the opening game, but then Wilf got in hand and went through to 15/12 in a single hand. When Eton I then opened the second game with another long run of 9 points, there seemed no way back for Cheltenham, who battled back to 5-9, but then another run by Wilf to match ball, 14-9, allowed Peter to finish the game 15/9 to take Eton I into the final to play Hamish & Igor.

The final, played over best of 5 games, contained some excellent rackets. Eton I served first, but came out of hand without scoring. Winchester then went to 10-0, with 7 of these points coming from serves. Eton reached 4-12 in two hands, but Winchester got back in hand and took the game 15-4. The second game was the closest and best of the whole tournament. Winchester led 9-2, but Wilf and Peter recovered well to lead 10-9, and in their next time in the service box reached 14-10, game ball. Here Winchester got them out and reached 14 all. Eton chose set 3 and managed to get to 2-1, set to 3, game ball. But a crucial unforced error by Eton on a forehand attempted easy kill gave Winchester another chance to take the game, which they duly did, 17/16. The match should have been 1 game all, but at 2 games to love, Winchester seemed to be the likely winners. Eton, after a number of hands for both pairs, led 5-1, then Winchester ran straight through from 1-5 to 15/5 in a single hand. This gave them a 3 games to 0 victory, the first for Winchester since brothers Alex and Christian Portz won in 2014.