"Rules of the Game of Fives as Played at Eton" by A C Ainger 1877

"Tennis: Lawn Tennis: Rackets: Fives" the Badminton Library; 1st edition 1890.

The Boys Modern Playmate 1896. 816 pages - two devoted to Fives! Originally edited by the Revd J G Wood and printed by William Clowes and Sons. A compendium of outdoor games,indoor games, evening parlour games, ventriloquism, home pets, science and the arts.

The Encyclopaedia of Sport & Games Vol II (Crocodile Shooting to Hound Breeding - which of course includes Fives (just after Ferrets)!). It is edited by the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire (who else!) and seems to be written by E.L. Fox. Date of publication in 1911. An earlier volume dated 1897 has the same text but without the illustrations of the earlier publication (e.g. playing Fives at Eton). So the text below is of that earlier date. In the 450 or so pages there are about 7 on Fives, about equally dived between The Eton game and the Rugby game (the latter interestingly including as a subset the Winchester variety). The general section in the 1897 publication states:

"Both games (Eton & Rugby) afford most excellent exercise to all muscles of the body; so excellent , indeed, that it is a matter both for surprise and regret that few men continue to play after they have left school. The game costs little in time or money, and can still be played with success at an age when football has long ceased to be possible, and when cricket is beginning to lose some of its charm. A speculator might do worse than build Fives courts in our big towns. There are so many hundreds of Public School men in London who miss the opportunity for exercise which they have had at school, that the building of courts ought to be a remunerative investment".

(We could perhaps write something very similar today, some 100 years on!)

"The Book of Sport" edited by William Patten; 1st USA edition 1901 A beautifully illustrated description of Court Tennis, Racquets, Hand-Fives, Squash-Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Golf, and Polo as played in the USA's Eastern Seaboard, elite sporting clubs at the start of the 20th century.

Rackets and Fives Handbook published in 1923 an excellent article, entitled 'How to Play Fives' by R.C.Clift, in Spaldings' Sports and Athletic Library.

Hints on Eton Fives c1930(?) by G. Townsend Warner, assuredly one of the greatest players who have ever lived. "As a coach he was wonderful, as anyone reading his Essay on Fives will understand: for practically all there is to know of Eton Fives is contained, in essence at least, in his short hints. His observations on 'Lets' show, as no words can show, his passionate insistence on the spirit of the game."

Rules of the Eton Fives Association published in 1931 (known then as Laws) replaced Ainger's Rules of 1877. They were revised again in 1967, 1971, 1978, 1981 and rewritten in 2001.

Eton Fives - essay and coaching methods - written by David Egerton 1932.

Some Reflections on the Game of Eton Fives c1935(?) by J M Peterson Old Salopian and Headmaster of Shrewsbury.

"Rackets, Squash-Rackets, Tennis, Fives, & Badminton" edited by Lord Aberdare; 1st edition 1933; A major Racket Sports compendium dealing with the origins, history, equipment, courts, and the technique of these five great sports. Reprinted in 1951

Eton and Rugby Fives c1935 by David Egerton and John Armitage. 96 pages.The Lonsdale Library - Editors The Earl of Lonsdale and Mr Eric Parker Price 2/6d net. The fly leaf states 'Mr John Armitage is in the first flight of Rugby Fives players and is a member of the Jesters Committee. Mr David Egerton is the founder of the Eton Fives Association and a winner of the Kinnaird Cup.' It is a complete handbook of practical advice, instruction and rules. The contents of this volume were drawn from "Rackets, Squash-Rackets, Tennis, Fives, & Badminton." (see above).

The British Sports and Sportsmen series c1935 "Athletic Sports, Tennis, Rackets and other Ball Games"; Sections on Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Rackets, Squash Rackets, Fives, and Badminton.

Laws of the Game of Eton Fives drawn up in October 1950, revised October 1965 and again in October 1981.

Handball by Ray Doherty (1972) and Tom McElligott's Handball (1984) are the only two published in Ireland covering the history, characters and art of the great game. The late writer and broadcaster Mick Dunne was planning a definitive book on the subject but sadly departed before his plans had come to fruition. Handball fiction, apart from the usual excuses after losing a match, is a still more neglected genre. The only one is ‘KILLSHOT’ by Tom Alabrandi (Corgi 1979). It was considered by Sam Goldwyn Jnr., himself a handballer, as good enough to be made into a movie. In the end financial considerations stymied the idea. It’s the story of Tate Coldiron, an Indian-Jew who had honed his skill by endless practice and reading the book The Arte of Handball” by Sean Dwyer (1815).

"Sports and Games, History and Origins" by Brian Sewell, 1977 contains an entry on Eton Fives.

'Before the Cock Crow' 1986 A novel by Simon Raven and published by Muller, Blond and White. A quote from Philip Howard's review: "It is an exercise in cerebral superiority, soundish on esoteric matters ranging from Eton Fives to Homeric hexameters. It is stylish, and a bit sick; and if you are at home in Raven's rookery, you will enjoy it".

'The English Home' 1985 published by Faber and Faber includes the Fives Courts, Pinner, Middlesex.

Biography of the Late Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, by John H Padden, published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1986.

'Sport and the Artist Vol 1: Ball Games' by Mary Ann Wingfield. It was published in 1988 and is quite good on the interchangeablity between fives and racquets/tennis. There is a quote from the Daily Advertiser of 28th October 1742, which states that Mr Thomas Higginson kept a fives court at the bottom of St Martin's Street on the left hand in Leicester Fields: 'it's for Fives playing only either with Rackets, Balls or at hand Fives at 2p, 3p or 4p a game'. Later we read 'and the other tennis court...........It's built like the tennis courts at Oxford and Cambridge. It's made out of the Fives court into a carre Tennis court. Tennis at 8p or 12p for a four game set, note any gentleman may speak either court for their own play for any day or hour or Fives playing in either court with Tennis and other balls'. As the author says 'From these advertisements it is clear that the tide of fashion for single walled fives was already on the ebb'! In 1812, James Neild writing on the prisons at the Fleet and the King's Bench recorded ' part of the ground next the wall is appropriated for playing at Rackets and Fives'.

How to Play and Coach Eton Fives 1993 by John Reynolds. 140 pages. Sponsored by National Westminster Bank, published by EFA Publications and printed by the Gem Publishing Company. This book is the definitive guide to playing and coaching Eton Fives by one of the greatest players of all time. John Reynolds has won eleven UK Championships, more than any other player.

Eton Fives Association Website established in 1994 at Wolverhampton University by Jon Wallis (Old Wulfrunian) with major enhancements by Mike Fenn (Old Ipswichian) 1999 to date.

"Where the Cow is King."A history of Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons 2001 by J V Smith and written for the National Trust. It mentions a Fives Court at the Halfway House in Box between Nailsworth and Minchinhampton in a hapter on Sport on the Commons.

'Well Schooled in Murder' by Elizabeth George.
Murder on the Fives Court (2002) - An episode of 'The Lynley Mysteries' provided a television adaption of Elizabeth George's book 'Well Schooled in Murder'. Investigation of the possibility of murder in one of the Fives Courts provided the focal point for the story. The courts on screen were those at St Johns School Leatherhead.

Roald Dahl Childhood 'More about Boy' due for publication September 2008. An expanded version of Roald Dahl's childhood memoir, 'Boy'. In his original book (published in 1984), Dahl recalled that - as a schoolboy at Repton, 1930-1934 - he had greatly enjoyed and been very good at playing Eton fives. The author Liz Williams is hoping to include a few of Dahl's letters to his mother in which he mentions playing fives and organising some of those trips to play against other schools.

Comment for the forthcoming book and documentary on the Fleming Boys January 2010
"At Portsmouth we played Eton fives which I quite enjoyed, but when I got to Winchester I found that their game was different with no buttress and if I remember correctly they played with gloves while at Portsmouth we played with bare hands. (Perhaps Grammar school boys were tougher or we could not afford gloves!!) I was shy at exposing that I knew a slightly different game and as a result did not play at all."

M.R.F.

A Fives Bibliography by Mike Fenn
Created 11th February 2003
Last revised 26 January 2009
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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