EFA
Westway 2001-2002
Early Days
Westway will be with us in 2002 rather than 2001; sad, but still very exciting with the fundamentals unchanged. This is the first real opportunity to bring Eton Fives to a much wider audience and an opportunity to give players a home for friendly fives. And what is so special is that these courts sit inside one of the most vibrant and successful sports centres in the land and that they are as determined as we are to make this venture a success.
During the past year at the behest of the EFA, Mark Marriott, a young, enthusiastic Old Olavian fives player was at Westway to help with the coaching that was going to be necessary as soon as the courts opened. He left at the end of February to teach under privileged children in India and wrote from there about his time at Westway.
“I am writing with a brief summary of my experiences of working at Westway. I was employed by the EFA to work as the Fives Development Officer at Westway Sports Centre from September '01 to February '02. When I started work at Westway, I concentrated my efforts on getting classes of local school children booked on to the free fives taster sessions I was hoping to run on the Westway courts. I wrote to every school in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and to the schools in the surrounding three boroughs, inviting them to bring a class to Westway for a fun introductory session in fives. These letters were followed up with phone calls; each conversation started with explaining that fives was not five-a-side football, nor pat ball, but something much more exciting! This lack of knowledge also was quite useful in some cases, as the teachers would be intrigued and ask to be shown around the courts or have information posted to them. Within the first few weeks, about fifteen schools and youth groups had booked free taster sessions at Westway for their group of between fifteen and thirty children.
After it became clear that the courts would not be ready at the hoped for time, I continued running fives taster sessions in school playgrounds. This was a period of great frustration to me. I could see that there were people eager to play fives and I was eager to teach them.
There were a lot of positive things that I was able to take from my time at Westway. Firstly it was good to learn that the first ever set of public fives courts are based in such a professional and well-run establishment as Westway Sports Centre. Staff at the centre were genuinely interested in fives and keen to ask me about fives and to browse through the coaching books and EFA reports I had. The staff at the centre showed a real will for fives to succeed. For example, children on the half term tennis camp were given a mandatory taster of fives which at the time meant playing against the walls inside the tennis complex; but this combination of fives and tennis camps at Westway is to continue once the courts are open. From this I also learnt how fives could be integrated into Westway's other already successful sports programmes.
The only time that there was activity on the courts on the day of Westway's grand opening in October. Classes from three different schools enjoyed a session of fives on the courts. This was basically a very successful day and ran particularly smoothly due to there being three coaches on court. I received positive feedback from the schools about their fives session when I visited them afterwards.
The sports co-ordinators for the schools in the boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, whom I met, were very interested in fives and keen to help generate players. These were excellent people to make contact with as they had experience in organising sporting events and had regular contact with the PE co-ordinators in the local schools. One of the co-ordinators wanted to put a feature article about fives into the sports brochure that is distributed around the entire borough.
One interesting contact that I made was with the Sports Programme Officer from a local college. This woman's job is to organise work placements for students who are taking the sports and recreation NVQ - (a national vocational qualification available to students aged from sixteen to nineteen). To gain this qualification, various practical and theory options must be completed. We discussed how playing, coaching or learning about fives would be relevant to the course and could be included in the course syllabus. This would generate players on the courts at Westway and help the students to gain their qualification. Also, hopefully players who take fives as part of their course may continue playing for fun after completing their course.
Other people who showed and interest in fives included the colony of local Irish travellers, Westway tennis players who had not played since they were at school and the leader of a day centre for homeless people. It was exciting to realise that there was genuine interest in fives and that a new, assorted community of fives players could be built at Westway. So despite the initial teething problems of fives at Westway, I think we can all look forward to what promises in the long run to be huge success. In my time at Westway I learnt that locally there is real interest in playing fives and also that everyone involved in fives at Westway and the North Kensington Amenity Trust have both the professional skill and the desire to make fives a success. To make fives at Westway work, it is up to us as fives players to do our bit as well. It is important for us to make use of the courts and enjoy Westway's facilities (cafe, bar, new changing rooms). Possibly more important though would be for us to introduce friends or family members to fives at Westway by taking them along to one of the open club sessions. There will sessions for everyone and through existing players, a valuable source of new players could be found. Information on fives and any other Westway activity can obtained by calling 020 8969 0992. “
After Mark Marriott had departed James Toop took over and he spent much of his time producing a report on how Fives should look to the future and how we should set about the financing of this growth. It is a report of great quality and I believe that over the years to come we will be basing many of our decisions on it. However you can find more on this elsewhere in this annual report.
A.R.W./M.A.L.M.
Westway Report 2001-2002 by Anthony Wagg and Mark Marriott
Created 9th February 2003
efa@etonfives.co.uk