This Year has been a successful one in the launching of fives at Westway. Over this year I have worked with a huge variety of children from many different backgrounds and ages. As well as really achieving a high level of work with schools, morning sessions are in place for local people of all backgrounds and age. During the season we were running an extremely busy timetable with around 45 hours of coaching per week, as well as hosting league and friendly matches.

Westway Fives players have now started to participate in the wider world of Fives. We were represented in the Northern Championships (Shrewsbury), The Rossall Schools Open (Blackpool), The London Open, The National Ladies and Mixed Tournaments, and also the Kinnaird Cup - the men’s Nationals. Dominique Redmond, partnering coach - David Mew, won the Prestigious "Turnbull Trophy" which was recently hosted for the first time by Westway. Miss Redmond has also caused a stir in the Fives world by winning the National Ladies Winchester Fives Singles Championships, held at Malvern College at the start of March, defeating an outstanding player in the final who has won this event every year since 1988!! There have also been several Adult matches, and also a school Westway match against Harrow School.

The National Schools’ Eton Fives Championships was this year held at Highgate School. Some 350 pairs entered this six-day event from all over the country. Westway proudly put forward fifteen pairs of girls and boys to take part in the whole range of age groups from U12 through to Schools' Open. Seven local schools were represented - none of who had played Fives at all until this year. All of their training had been received at Westway, and the participation in this great event was just reward for the hours of practice that these new young players had invested in the sport. Although one year of play is too little to win any of the National categories, everyone improved enormously from their experience. Our top ladies pair - which included Westway’s very own Dominique Redmond and Jemma Turner - were very close to winning the Ladies Open, losing very narrowly in the final to three-times previous champions.

Some 250 people have been playing Fives at the Westway each week - it has been a busy season. Fives at Westway has firmly established itself in the local schools, as well as the wider Fives-playing community in London. The moving of the final stages of the national adult open to Westway has heralded the arrival of Westway fives. Hosted over two weeks, the Ladies and men’s semis and finals were played at the traditional end to the fives season just before Easter. Outstanding matches of amazing speed were produced in front of a large crowd of spectators and it was very satisfying to see the highest standard of fives being played at Westway. There was all-round approval of our new fives courts, as well as our arrangements regarding hospitality for the event- the marquee covered spectator seating was especially appreciated!

As we moved into more of a consolidation year at Westway we are moving forward with our junior and adult programs with the setting up of both junior and adult clubs. A WYSA scheme is being set up parallel with the other sports squads for the juniors and The Westway Fives Club is being launched with great success on a Monday night as well as pay and play on a Thursday for Adult players of any experience. Over the summer months spare time on the courts will be made available for local residents in a discount scheme. We will also run holiday camps and fun competition days throughout the summer months. After a successful year under Howard’s care, with coaching times growing and things looking bright, the trust agreed to take on myself as development manager and coach, and offer Howard a post directly employed by the trust. Howard’s consultant role means he is able to continue advising and organising things but he can now spend time on his other commitments. After a successful year financially we have been set high targets for the next twelve months.

We aim to get roughly 55% of this target from school bookings. The rest is split 50/50 between junior products such as after school practices and birthday parties and adult fives, such as pay and play and tournaments such as the Turnbull trophy and friendly ‘mix around’ days.

Of course the summer is always quieter than the season proper, although we kept some of our school bookings throughout the summer term, one fives playing school (City of London) and one ‘new’ school (Ealing tutorial college). Both of these schools should continue in September. I have also worked with a variety of schools on shorter length courses, as well as one-off fun days in conjunction with the other sports at the centre. This season’s timetable looks to be filling up fast with schools already almost booking out every afternoon between September and Easter.

We are planning to run a junior school mini competition for local schools in September with coaching sessions for each school followed by a competition fun day. To be held at Harrow school as guests of the Harrow Fives club.

Evening Bookings seem to be healthier than last year at this early stage with most of last year’s fixtures being renewed. There are still many times available, call David Mew for more information.

Also at the fixtures meeting held at Westminster, Howard also launched his scheme for friendly organised fives to what seemed to be appreciative club secretaries. We will see this coming season if this scheme will work, whether there is this thirst for friendly Fives that some members believe exists, and how helpful the clubs themselves will be when recruiting time arrives.

On a slightly different note, I have begun the construction of a fives coaching course, drawing from the experience of HW, myself and the other members of REFCA as well as other references such as JR’s book ‘How to play and coach Eton fives’.

Hopefully with the blessing of the EFA and the RFA the course will become the recognised qualification for fives coaches. As well as assisting new and existing coaches or masters in charge with their coaching and shot technique, the course will of course cover other important areas such as group management skills and safety issues. Once published the course will also help in other important areas such as assisting coaches applying for insurance. I have been looking into this for the self-employed coaches I work with at the Westway, and leading companies do insist that there is a professional qualification in place, which is recognised by the national sporting bodies. Most nationally recognised sports have a coaches training scheme in place and I believe that this is very important in our drive to preserve, promote and expand the game.

D.G.M.

Westway Report 2003-2004 by David Mew
Created 14th January 2006
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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