The Times 1 April 1990 - Holders bid for tenth title
Brian Matthews and John Reynolds, the most successful players in the history of Eton Fives, are poised to compete for their tenth successive amateur championship title. This year's quarter-final victims, the pair's hundredth in all, were despatched early last Sunday afternoon on the Fives courts of Eton itself, where the game was codified early last century.

Matthews and Reynolds, if successful in Saturday's semi-final, will have to wait until Easter Monday for the championship's climax. Although hardly the most common of sports, its enthusiasts are numbered in the hundreds rather than the hundred-thousands, Sunday's quarter-final opponents were professional athletes, albeit in another sport. lan Hutchinson and John Carr play or have played cricket for Middlesex and play Fives just for fun.

Both Matthews, a master at Highgate School, in North London, and Reynolds, a journalist, learned the game at the City of London School, a private day school like most of the 30 or so listed in the Eton Fives Association Handbook.

Fives in its most rudimentary form was invented when peasants found they could not resist bashing a small ball against their local chapel walls. The 300 or so Eton Fives courts in England replicate one side of the chapel at Eton College. Although slowly in decline in this country, Fives has been taken up with a passion in Nigeria, where the game is followed far more seriously than it ever has been here. Last year, Nigerians competed in the amateur championship for the first time. Although they were beaten in the second round, they may soon be a force to reckon with. (Editor's Note: Matthews and Reynolds went on to win the final with Reynolds winning a record number of eleven championships in 1991 partnered by Manuel de Souza Girao.)

The Times 6 June 1991 - Memories of Fives
From the Ambassador of India to Norway.
Sir, You remarked in a leader ('Fair play for blacks', May 28) that Eton Fives is little played outside the British public school. I remember playing Fives as a boy, in the 1940s, in the courts at the Government Arts College, Kumbakonam. This is a small town in what was then the Madras Presidency and known not only as the birthplace of the great mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanu-jan but also for its rowing.

I have no doubt that the masonry courts are still in use. I am pleased that my son was able to play the same game at Eton itself. Yours faithfully, L. N. RANGARAJAN, Norway.

The Times 13 June 1991 - Memories of Fives
From Mr G. Davidson
Sir, One area of Africa in which Eton Fives was widely played (leading article, May 28; letter, June 6) is northern Nigeria. The game was introduced by S. J. Hogben, an Old Cholmeleian, in 1922 and was played enthusiastically by boys who later became the leaders of the northern region. The courts were originally built of mud, but one of the schools of which I was principal had two fine courts which were in constant use.

The Nigerian game was played with bare hands and a tennis ball; my efforts to introduce gloves and a hard ball were unsuccessful. In the early sixties a team from Eton College toured northern Nigeria; a year or so later a team from Nigeria played a series of matches against English schools, both styles of play being used. Honours were even at the end of the series.

One hopes that the game is still flourishing in Nigeria Yours faithfully, G. Davidson, The Common Room, Dulwich College.

The Times 26 February 1992 - Glyndebourne
The Organ Room at Glyndebourne is one of England's grandest sitting rooms. Used in the past for music, it is now appreciated by opera-goers, particularly latecomers who can watch a performance on close-circuit television until they can enter the auditorioum. It is also used by the Christie family, owners of Glyndebourne, for parties and receptions.

The Organ Room began life as an Eton Fives court attached to the Glyndebourne manor house which John Christie, Lady Christie's father-in-law, inherited at the end of the First World War.

In typically flamboyant style, he bought an organ company in order to have his own organ built in the room he constructed on the site of the Fives court in 1920. Concerts were held there for local people until the opera house was built in 1934.

Report from The Independent 1992 - 'Handball Players must be War-like'
This was the opinion of a German conscription tribunal which rejected the application of a professional player to be excused military service. Handball, the tribunal concluded, is a war-like activity.... "When a player has been for years an active handball player, then the conclusion must be that he has developed capacity for violence."

The Times 12 February 1994 - Obituary: Stanley Thompson
Stanley Thompson, Headmaster of Bloxham 1952-65, died in Malvern on January 28, aged 94. He was born on September 23, 1899.

A schoolmaster to his fingertips, Stanley Thompson spent his entire working life in two public schools Sherborne, where he was for 30 years, and Bloxham where, having taken over the headmastership at the relatively late age of 52, he stayed for the last 13 years of his professional life. Not that he ever became a doddering 'Mr Chips'. Legend always had it, that even at the age of 65, he could take on and defeat any master or boy in the school at Eton Fives.

The Times 31 May 1994 - Bath's most precious ruin to be saved from vandals
English Heritage has agreed to grant £275,000 towards restoring the Old Gymnasium in the grounds of Prior Park College, Bath.

The derelict building, listed Grade II starred, is described as probably the most important building at risk in the city. It was built in the 1830s, although in its present state it gives the impression of being older. It was used for only a short period and its isolated state made it particularly vulnerable to subsequent vandalism. Its conservation had for a long appeared to present insuperable problems, but has now been agreed by English Heritage, the council and the college, which occupies the Palladian mansion, which was built by Ralph Allen and administered by the Congregation of Christian Brothers.

The total cost of restoration is estimated at £400,000, of which the remainder will be funded by the college. The work involves rebuilding the colonnaded loggia, the external walls and the stone staircases, after which the historic ball courts will be used for Eton Fives and other games.

It is hoped that the building will also attract other sporting and cultural events, including performances during the Bath International Festival. The building is expected to be brought back into full use next year, when the National Trust, which was given 27 acres of parkland in 1992, also hopes to complete the clearance of shrubbery and undergrowth and the restoration of a number of features, including a grotto, two bridges and a fish pond. The trust plans to open them to the public as part of its centenary celebrations.

Sunday Times 4 September 1994 Sporting Highs - Drugs in Sport
To avoid any more drugs-related sporting scandals, I'd like to propose an alternative Olympics comprised of steroid swimming, betablockers bowls, clenbuterol croquet, ephedrine Eton Fives and, of course, lawn tennis for those on grass. If this idea gets up your nose, you could have a crack at the cocaine pole vault, enabling you to go higher and higher or, with a touch of LSD, even fly over the bar! Ena Wordsworth Ramsbury, Wiltshire

The Times 25 July 1995 - Fivers Please
Lord Kingsdown, formerly Robin Leigh-Pemberton, the Bank of England's Governor, has a new fiscal challenge: Eton Fives.

In a letter to fellow OEs, he is backing a campaign by The Eton Fives Charitable Trust to drag the game back from the brink of extinction. The appeal seeks to raise £500,000 to build new courts and restore old ones. 'If the game is to survive, let alone expand, it is essential that we who have enjoyed it in the past, now provide the trust with resources', writes Kingsdown, who had his own private court built at his Kent home.

Independent 5 February 1996 - Dr Clive Bruton
Clive Bruton was one of Britain's foremost neuropathologists, noted for his work on Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, epilepsy and the pathological effects of boxing. As curator of the Corsellis Collection of brains at Runwell Hospital in Essex he looked after largest brain archive in the world.

Bruton's mother was evacuated to Leicestershire and gave birth to him in 1941 at Lockington Hall, a castle that had been converted into a maternity hospital, although he spent his childhood in Battersea south-west London.

He was educated at Emanuel School in south London, where he excelled at rugby and Eton Fives.

The Times 14 February 1997 - Inner City Fives
An article detailed attempts by Jim Cogan of Westminster School and others to introduce Eton Fives to the Inner City of London. The introduction of one-wall handball to the New York Inner City has proved very successful. Police and Community groups have involved thousand of youngsters in the programme and are convinced that it has saved many of the youth from the crime and drug culture of the streets. A similar initiative is being planned for deprived areas of Dublin.

The Times 19 August 1997 - To Meet a Millionaire's Eye
The workshop at Cliveden was once an Eton Fives court, a tennis court, and a mortuary. It is now dedicated, Mr Proudfoot says,'to the conservation of statuary, masonry, wall paintings and the decorative.

"Contemporary Review" July 1998 - From a piece about school magazines by A.D. Harvey.
School magazines also provide early glimpses of future cabinet ministers practising the politician's skills of excuse-making and knee-jerk optimism, e.g., in The Nottinghamian, December 1958, Kenneth Clarke, later Chancellor of the Exchequer, explains that though the school Fives Club was easily defeated in an Eton Fives match at Mansfield, `this was hardly surprising as the court and tactics for this game are very different from those of the Rugby Fives that we play ... So long as this enthusiasm for the game is maintained, the Fives Club can continue to extend its activities and can look forward to the future with complete optimism.'

Seen in "The Times" - The Fireman's Game
Firemen in Kent had been banned from playing volleyball, as too many injuries were occuring. Of interest is that in America, handball became known as the Fireman's Game, as this was the sport they played when waiting for call-out. Garages where fire trucks are parked are spacious and ideal for one-walled handball - maybe our fireman should try it!

Sunday Times 26 March 2000 - Property
The Debenham House, as it is known, was built in Addison Road, Holland Park, West London, in 1906 by a third-generation arts and crafts architect, Halsey Ricardo. The gardens out the back are nice in a rather unimaginative, formal way, made more interesting by a classical Ricardo garden pavilion. Out to one side down a flight of steps, is something quite different: a dank open box with curious stonework projections. It turns out to be an Eton Fives court (you clout the ball with big mittens, apparently). There is planning permission to turn this area into a covered swimming pool with a gym to one side and a private cinema.

John Reynolds observes - 'the court was still standing - albeit with a hole for a kitchen window in the front wall - when I went to look around a few years ago. As the rest of the building is Grade I listed, you would have thought that the Fives court would be legally preserved too. It is, after all, as much of what a turn-of-the-century gentleman had in his house as the rudimentary heating system, you would have thought.'

The Times 28 May 2001 - Latest Wills
Michael Harrop Wilson, of Harrogate, North Yorkshire left estate valued at £5,810,659 net. He left his estate mostly to relatives, but left £1,000 to the Eton Fives Charitable Trust.

The Guardian - 2nd October 2001 - Higher Education
Higher browsing: The third degree *Let us put the record straight, as it were, and abjectly withdraw our suggestion last week that Sir Howard Newby, ex-VC of Southampton and incoming head of the funding council, is a fan of white rapper Eminem. Vice-chancellors, as he notes, attract inaccurate comments. "I have been described in the newspapers as the son of the travel writer Eric Newby - which I am not. Now I am described as a fan of Eminem - which I am not. I abhor all the values which Eminem espouses. I am, however, the only known vice-chancellorial fan of Boz Scaggs ." *Alongside the traditional croquet club, Eton Fives, Oxford University Conservative Association and the OU Orchestra are the all-new Psi-Society devoted to psychedelic trance music, and a stunt factory specialising in fire breathing , street luges and go-karting on ice. Oxford University's freshers' fair this week should put paid to the outmoded "Brideshead Revisited" stereotypes of Oxford that persist in the media, argues Oxford final-year student Will Straw in his first exclusive online column for Education Guardian this week. An advertising ban also means that visitors will not be bombarded with McDonalds, Microsoft or Coca-Cola, he says. "Where Oxford was once the preserve of a privileged few, it is increasingly becoming a centre of diversity," argues Straw. Stories? Gossip?

Extracts from 'London Beat' 3rd October 2001 - Westway
The Westway Sports Centre has just completed a £10million redevelopment that boasts the UK's biggest climbing facility, state-of-the-art football pitches and a floodlit riding arena. But it's the inclusion of four courts for the traditionally elite game of Eton Fives that is really turning heads. However, it's the Fives courts that are attracting most interest. The idea was floated by a local councillor who had been to a public school, although the response from Westway personnel was initially lukewarm. Then others chipped in support both verbal and financial - including, crucially, the Eton Fives Association. 'They simply don't want the game to die,' explains O'Brien. 'The Association was genuinely enthusiastic and, best of all, they have funded a development Officer, Mark Marriott, for six months to get the project under way.' 'Forget the rules of Fives,' says O'Brien, 'kids can use the courts to play their own handball games.' However, the simple basic equipment of a white, golf-sized ball and leather gloves - the sport gained its name from the expression 'bunch of fives' - will be available free. 'Old Etonian types,' he adds wryly, 'will have to pay the going rate.' The Association is also backing 'Westway's' sponsorship scheme whereby more affluent users support junior squad members from poor backgrounds. (John O'Brien is the North Kensington Amenity Trust's associate director for sport and recreation.)

Sunday Times 14 October 2001 - The Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe
The Royal Grammar School was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I in 1562 and the school has been a language college since 1996. Eight languages are taught, including Mandarin and Japanese, and there a choice of 24 subjects at A-level. It caters for up to 60 boarders, charging for food and accommodation. Sports include Eton Fives and shooting, and there are about 30 school societies.

Sports Teacher Magazine 2002 - Westway
The Spring issue contains an article on Westway explaining the facilities that are available. Mention is made of the 4 'handball' Fives courts and acknowledges the support of the Eton Fives Association.

Sunday Times Sports Section 17 March 2002 - Questions and Answers
" Further to earlier answers, The Times published an article in 1996 which said a handball court discovered at Paso de la Amada in Mexico is dated at 1500BC, and is believed to be the earliest sporting facility in the world." Mike Fenn, Secretary of the Eton Fives Association.

Murder on the Fives Court 2002 - The Lynley Mysteries
A recent episode of 'The Lynley Mysteries' provided a television adaptation 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.

The Week Magazine 2003 - The Elms Preparatory School – email from Jamie Fleming
I subscribe to a magazine called The Week. In the obituaries section last week was an article about a certain Colonel Michael Singleton. Singleton who was headmaster of a prep school called The Elms up in the Malvern Hills. The article goes on to mention how (and I quote) “the older boys roamed the countryside unsupervised, and pupils were allowed to capture owls and keep them in the fives courts, provided they caught enough sparrows to feed them.” I imagine they’re rugby courts.

The Times 2003 - Charterhouse School Tuck Shop
"OH CRIKEY, have you heard? Starbucks is taking over the school tuckshop. In a move that traditionalists will regard as the thin end of the wedge - or perhaps the skinny end of a low-fat latte - the American chain is coming to Charterhouse. The move may sound the death knell for tuckshop, an English peculiar.

School Stores was the name of the first tuckshop at Eton. It sold fives balls and gloves as well as 'sock' - Etonian for tuck. Sock was essential when the local butcher's sold 'boys meat.' It meant 'unsuitable for dogs'".

Daily Mail June 2003 – Fives in 1799
Derek Whitehead reports - the article was about a black slave from America who was brought up in England and fought for the boxing championship of Britain. "Under Lord Camelford's guidance, Richmond made his professional debut in 1800 at London's top venue, the fives courts in St. Martin's Lane, fighting a whip maker called Green."

Ice Magazine July 2003 - Sporting Madness
Eton Fives is given a small feature in the July issue of this slightly scurrilous 'Lad's Mag'. The piece is part of a feature entitled 'Sporting Madness' and includes a picture - it is actually quite respectful, unlike most of the content of ICE!

Letter to the Times 2004 - In response to the lack facilities and playtime for children - Rodney Legg

Sir,
A "No Ball Games" sign appeared in about 1970, in the 19th-century Ball Court at Milborne Port, Somerset. The court was provided by the land owning Medlycott family for village boys to play Eton-style Fives against a great stone wall. Beside its flagstones, the strip of adjoining grass had been taken over by the British Legion, as a remembrance garden.

It may have seemed appropriate at the time - utilising the last play-space of the teenagers who went to war - but, in putting it out of bounds, future generations of villagers were deprived of a purpose-built courtyard in which to play.

Sunday Times Travel Section 21st November 2004
Following an article "You don't have to be a prince to play Polo" in to-day's Sunday Times Jeremy Lazell provides an insight into Crocquet, Eton Fives, Rackets and Real Tennis "The royal box - four more sports for aspiring bluebloods."

ETON FIVES

"It’s like squash, except that instead of using a racket, you hit the ball (granite-hard) with the palm of your hand. You do have padded gloves for protection, but miss the padding by more than an eighth of an inch and it feels as though someone has driven nails through your knuckles. This, of course, is why public schoolboys like it so much: the absence of high-tech kit appeals to their spartan sensibilities, and the sheer discomfort appeals to their predilection for pain (cf cold showers, early-morning runs and Latin). Better yet, Eton fives is played on a bizarre open-ended court full of nooks and crannies, modelled on the great grandpater of all courts, a rectangular bay of the chapel wall at Eton, thus bestowing yet more eccentricity. The game’s spiritual home from home is Nigeria, where big games pull in crowds of up to 500.

Who plays? Thirty of our finest schools compete in the national championships — Harry played until he discovered polo.

Can I have a go? The only public courts in Britain are at the Westway Sports Centre, in London (020 8968 2642, www.westway.org; rental £5 per hour)."

Press Release - Formation of the Fives Federation 10th February 2005
“The Eton Fives and Rugby Fives Associations yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create The Fives Federation, a body which unites all forms of Fives in England under a single banner as the new external ‘face’ of the game of Fives.

The Fives Federation will represent all versions of Fives when dealing with public bodies and sponsors in any matters affecting Fives generally; and will seek to raise significantly the public profile of Fives as a handball game with a number of distinct ‘codes’ which can also bring benefits to the wider community. Today, Fives in its various forms is played by some 70 of the country’s leading schools and clubs, while in an inclusive outreach programme the Westway Sports Centre in London has successfully introduced the game to new players of school age throughout the London area.

In their joint statement, the Chairmen of the respective Associations noted “No court game can match Fives in all its forms for its combination of skill, energy, minimal equipment and low cost. We see the formation of the Fives Federation as a great opportunity to multiply together the experience and enthusiasm of two long-established and respected Associations, and bring a new momentum to all that we are trying to do to strengthen and expand this marvellous game wherever it is played”.

Fives Federation - Daily Telegraph Sports Round-Up 14th February 2005
"The two main codes have united under the name of the Fives Federation, after many decades of rivalry, to fight for the sport's long-term survival. The Eton, Rugby and the lesser known Winchester associations signed a memorandum of understanding this week."

James Toop - Interview by Charles Randall

Daily Telegraph - 19/10/2005, Interview by Charles Randall 'All you need is a pair of fives gloves and a ball and you're off' A Life in Sport JAMES TOOP FIVES James Toop, 24, an Oxford graduate and trainee management consultant in London, is the only man to become national champion at the two fives codes, eton and rugby. A fine all-round sportsman, Toop has become the eminent fives player of his generation. He is running a youth scheme called Inner City Fives Association to popularise the game through the one-wall code, a sport already well established in New York. THE basic game of fives, the one-wall version, dates back to medieval times. I believe the name derives from bunch of fives, an old expression for 'hand'. Eton fives is not played much outside England - a little in Nigeria and Switzerland, but not much elsewhere. There's not much glory, but even if I didn't excel at it, I would still play because it's a fantastic sport. The game is played with padded gloves and a hard, rubberised ball which may bounce once, using four smooth concrete walls in rugby fives, as with squash, and three walls in the doubles-only eton code, which has a step and buttress as added complications.

Fitness is one of my strengths - I have run the London Marathon in 3hr 20min - but there are no particular physical attributes you need. Tall players might be good at volleying and use their height to get on top of the ball, smaller players can get low. The main thing is to have quick reactions.

My sister Helen, a medical student in London, plays and reached the ladies' national semi-finals and we have won the mixed doubles.

There is a uniquely high level of integrity required. That's a sportsmanship aspect I like about it. Even at the highest level there is no independent referee.

In about 1840 a version of fives was codified by Eton College. The boys enjoyed playing against the wall of the chapel, and courts were built replicating the buttress and step. There are about 20 courts at Eton now. Rugby fives, from Rugby School, started later.

The costs of putting up a proper fives court these days is huge, more than pounds 150,000 for a block of three. But those courts will last for 100 years or more, and it's cheap to play individually. All you need is a pair of fives gloves and a ball and you're off. It costs virtually zero. Not many sports can match that. Even if you want to just go running, you still need special expensive shoes.

I'm hoping one-wall fives will get more people interested. I have now got a project, purely for altruistic reasons, introducing one-wall fives to every school in London. You use bare hands and a tennis ball on one wall, with lines marked out on the ground. All it costs, really, is a tin of paint. There is only one proper public fives facility in the whole country, and that's in London. Four eton fives courts were built by the Westway Development Trust and opened four years ago at Crowthorne Road, Shepherd's Bush. They are excellent in quality.

People often ask whether I prefer eton or rugby fives, and perhaps a diplomatic answer is required. I like the different aspects of both - different ways you can kill the ball and win points in eton fives, using spin and touch shots, and the power and stamina needed for rugby fives. Because I play both I think I have an advantage. The two main codes never used to have contact, as different schools played, but the two boards have now joined forces as the Fives Federation, so that they can pool resources.

On leaving St Olave's School I went to Geelong Grammar School in Australia as a sports coach for two months after my A-levels, using a travel grant. There were two eton fives courts there, but the school had stopped using them because nobody knew how to play. I coached fives for all year groups, and almost the whole school had a go. Whether they still play, I don't know.

Then I taught for two years at Selsdon High School in the Teach First scheme and introduced the game there, starting with the one-wall version. From a pupil's perspective they all loved the game. Nearly everyone who actually gets on court enjoys it; very few don't. One-wall fives is called handball in New York. It's huge over there. They have over 10,000 children playing it and over 3,000 courts in different parts of the city. What I'm hoping to do is replicate their model across London through Inner Cities Fives Association, an organisation supported by UnLtd - Foundation For Social Entrepreneurs, but money remains a problem. It's a really effective way of getting sport going for inner-city children.

As a follow up James was to-day interviewed on radio TalkSport

The Times Saturday 7th January -'Spoof Letter' by Giles Coren

Following Michael Owen's broken foot I gather you may have a vacany up front alongside Alan Shearer. I am not especially quick, but then nor is he. Although more of a cricketer than a footballer, I did play footer a few times for my school First Eleven before giving it up for Eton Fives on account of not fancying it much in the rain.

Pending future developments I may require time off around by elections.

The Times October 2006

M.R.F.

Press Cuttings: Compiled 14th February 2003 by Mike Fenn
Revised 3rd April 2007 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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