Since leaving school, I have played fives more than any other sport, and have concluded that it is just about the finest game available. Most fives players would probably agree with this. It is energetic, competitive and pushes the entire body to the limit. Why is it then, that this wonderful past-time should have problems and what are these problems?

The main worry is the dwindling number of players. This is closely followed by the number of schools withdrawing from Eton Fives or making it the secondary Lent term sport, and finally the reduced use of Fives Courts around the country culminating ultimately in the reduction of courts. These problems were not always apparent to me, indeed until I joined the EFA committee I did not realise the seriousness of the problem. Like most fives players, I would organise a game with the usual people that I always played with and play all the league games (that were organised for me). I assumed the courts were built years ago for my benefit and that because they were made of stone, they needed no maintenance and that the Electricity Board didn't realise we used their power.

A booklet would arrive on my doorstep every year and I would read it with interest to see if my name was mentioned and then put it to the back of the drawer. When informed of competitions I would enter and begrudgingly part with my £3 entry fee and never considered the organising and logistics of it all.

Does any of this rambling dialogue strike a chord? I always wondered whom the Eton Fives Association were. It seemed to be made up from non fives players perching on a pedestal for the glory of it all, and I think that is still the opinion of most fives players. The truth of the matter is, the EFA committee would welcome anyone who has the love of fives at heart. Too many of the truly great players have shunned the committee to the detriment of the game.

The committee carries out a whole host of functions. It is made up from fives players who love the game so much that they travel miles and miles to meet and discuss the future of the sport. True, they waste hours arguing minute points, but at the heart, all they want to do is help the game survive.

The most disturbing statistics are that there are only a dozen or so fives players playing league or competition fives under the age of 25. The Kinnaird cup had less than fifty entries. The courts at Cambridge are under threat of demolition and Shrewsbury School does not have a fives member and cannot find one. Unless there is a dramatic turn of events I envisage the Kinnaird Cup of 2001 being contested between eight pairs of forty year olds in the only two remaining courts. However, this can be avoided but only with the above participation of all fives players. Put away any thoughts of what may have gone before, now is the time to act.

We need a junior committee made up from players under 23 to organlse competitions and encourage school leavers to continue through to club level. So far the response to this appeal has been dismal (a sign of the times). The future of the game is in your hands!

The EFA committee needs new members, full of enthusiasm with fresh ideas and time to put these ideas into practice. If neither of these are possible for you, the committee would be delighted to hear your opinions in order to help them decide the future of the game. We have spent the last eighteen months deciding whether to keep the game an 'elitist' public school past-time or open the game up to the public. The EFA is sitting on funds in excess of £20,000 that it cannot decide how to apportion. Your written views (to the Hon Secretary Martin Powell) would be extremely helpful as would your spoken views at the AGM. The survival of the game depends on each of us to put back part of what we have already taken out of the game. I do not joke when I say that without change, its days are numbered.

Future of Fives By Grant Williams
Created: 12th February 2006 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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