Six pairs came to Vida del Padel in Chichester on the last Saturday in August, out of the Padel League UK season, to play off for a prize put up by Forte Village. Three courts, one group, and a cut to the last four. The first result landed at 12:36. The last one landed at 20:46, and it took a championship tiebreak to get it.
Watch the day
The group: two unbeaten pairs, split by a single game
Rather than a full round robin — which for six pairs is fifteen matches and a very long morning — the organisers picked nine fixtures, three each, and played them across the three courts in three rounds. Group matches were best of three short sets to four games, with a match tiebreak instead of a third set. It kept the courts turning over: nine matches in two and a half hours.
Two pairs came through it without dropping a set. Jacob Barnes and Liam Stevens won 6–0 in sets and conceded seven games all morning. Oliver Gilmore and Richard Brownlow also won 6–0 in sets. Nothing separated them but the count-back, and on game difference — plus 18 against plus 15 — Barnes and Stevens took top seed by three games.
Group standings
| # | Pair | P | W | L | Sets | Games | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacob Barnes & Liam Stevens | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6–0 | 25–7 | +18 |
| 2 | Oliver Gilmore & Richard Brownlow | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6–0 | 26–11 | +15 |
| 3 | Tim Jones & Sam Jones | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4–2 | 18–13 | +5 |
| 4 | Andrew Doddy & Matthew Hiser | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2–5 | 15–23 | −8 |
| 5 | Alex Benson & Matthew Bunn | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1–6 | 13–25 | −12 |
| 6 | Ben Green & Tiago Carvalho | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0–6 | 7–25 | −18 |
Top four to the semi-finals. Fifth and sixth to the plate final — nobody went home after the group stage.
Every group result
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
The pair who scraped in
Fourth place, and it had not been comfortable. Andrew Doddy and Matthew Hiser opened against Barnes and Stevens and lost 4–1, 4–0 — five games in a match. They survived Benson and Bunn only after dropping the first set on a tiebreak and having to win a match tiebreak 10–6. And they lost to Gilmore and Brownlow, though closer than the scoreline suggests: the second set went to 4–4 and a tiebreak before it got away, 7–4.
One win, two losses, a minus-eight game difference and the last qualifying place. In a straight round robin the day would have ended there.
The knockout: 6–2, 6–3, and a reckoning
The knockout switched to full six-game sets, still with a match tiebreak as the decider — and the day changed shape completely. Doddy and Hiser did not just beat the top seeds, they took them apart: 6–2, 6–3 against Barnes and Stevens, who had lost nothing all day. On the next court Gilmore and Brownlow saw off Tim and Sam Jones 6–2, 6–1 and set up a final against the one pair still standing who had beaten them.
Semi-finals
Plate final
The plate went to Benson and Bunn, 6–4, 6–1 over Ben Green and Tiago Carvalho — a final between the two pairs who had gone winless in the group, and a reason for both of them to still be at the club at four o'clock.
An exhibition, while the final waited
With the semi-finals in by four and the final not due for a while, Court 2 was given over to an exhibition: Chloe and Javi against Lisa and Liam, scored on the same iPad and the same board as everything else, under a banner making it plain that none of it counted. It went to a match tiebreak too.
The final: 12–10
Gilmore and Brownlow took the first set 6–2 and looked like the pair who had not lost a match all day. Doddy and Hiser took the second 6–4. And then the whole afternoon came down to a championship tiebreak — first to ten, win by two — which went past ten, and past eleven, and was settled at 12–10.
🏆 Final · Court 2
2–6 6–4 12–10 (championship tiebreak)
Champions from fourth place, having beaten in turn both of the pairs who put them there. The final result went up on every screen in the building the moment it was entered, and the whole day — group table, bracket, every set score — is still readable at its own address.
How the day was run
Everything above was scored on CourtsOS, on three court-side iPads, with a standing board on the concourse and the organiser working from a phone. A few things the format did that are worth naming:
The decisions behind the draw
- Nine group fixtures, chosen — not fifteen. A full round robin of six pairs is fifteen matches. The organiser picked the nine that made the day fit the court time available.
- Two match formats in one event. Short sets to four in the group to keep courts turning over; full six-game sets for the semi-finals and final. Set once, pushed to every iPad.
- A count-back that had to be used. Two pairs finished unbeaten with identical set records. Game difference separated them, and the top seed was decided by three games.
- A plate. Fifth and sixth played a final of their own rather than going home at lunchtime.
- An exhibition that counts for nothing. Scored on the same court screen, kept out of the tournament by construction.
- A results page with an address. Players could read the full day off their own phones on the way out, and still can.
Thanks
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