The Eton Fives Association


    Tributes to Former Players and Officials. (K-N)


    Extracts from Eton Fives Annual Reports.

    D J L Keeble - Olavian (EFA Report 1995-1996)

    Many will be sorry at the death of Doug Keeble at the age of seventy, after a long illness. He was one of Eton Fives' great characters and was also a strong link with the history of the game immediately after the War, when he played no small part in the revival of Eton Fives in the ensuing years.

    It was from 1951, when he became Honorary Secretary of the Old Olavians' Eton Fives Club for several years, that he built up a large fixture list and became an important figure in helping the club to reach status whereby they could challenge the best in the country. He was particularly good at inspiring young talent at school to continue playing after leaving.

    For a number of years Doug served on the EFA Committee where his clear-sighted contributions to discussion were invaluable. He was resolute about fairness and had no hesitation in sharply reprimanding anyone, in or out of committee, sometimes with an acerbic wit, if he felt it appropriate. Both before and after serving on the Committee he did much work for the game behind the scenes. In the days before much of the secretarial load was delegated, his help and advice were frequently sought. In particular, in the 1960's, when the supply of balls had become almost critical, he investigated tirelessly possible new sources of supply until he was able to point the Committee in the right direction.

    As a player, Doug was of good average ability and in fact reached the Kinnaird semi-finals in 1959 with fellow Olavian, D R Williamson. where they lost to Salopians, M L Y Ainsworth and D R S Saunders, 1-3. In 1980 he won the Ipswich Tournament with M R Fenn. He had the unorthodox, but effective, back-hand shot and he was always a steadying influence when he had a young partner, being able to coax the best from him. In his prime, he was always available for matches and was constantly on the look-out for additional games with other clubs, which probably gave him some seventy matches a year. On court, he was a stickler for the rules and etiquette.

    Many in Eton Fives owe a debt of gratitude to Doug Keeble. There are those who have since achieved eminence in the game and who at some stage could have been lost to Eton Fives for one reason or another but for his quiet words of encouragement at a negative time. Somehow, the various competition finals, which he supported loyally for years, will not be the same without him. Hopefully, the numerous anecdotes about him will survive for many years to come but, thankfully, his name will live on with the Douglas Keeble Cup, which he donated for the League Competition, being pleased that R T Spooner had proposed the League as an Olavian initiative.

    Doug was also devoted to cricket and he frequently opened the batting for the Old Olavians 3rd XI. He always bathed his eyes with cold water before batting and watched the ball with exaggerated care. In 1955, he decided to start his own cricket club - Horsleydown, near St Olave's when it was at Tower Bridge. It was to be a nursery for the Old Olavians Cricket Club which he saw as having shortcomings in the development of young cricketers. He gathered a group of young players and quickly developed a full list of fixtures on Sundays, plus a Kent tour, running the club single-handedly for many years. Although he attracted some very good players it was always the Old Olavians in whom he took the greatest interest and pride. He was very proud of his one and only century around 1970 but he also achieved some fifties. As his fitness began to go, his own contribution on the field became less and Horsleydown Cricket Club finished in 1985.

    In his career, Doug was a scientific civil servant, being an Experimental Officer in the Ministry of Defence. Apart from Fives and cricket, one of his other great loves was music, in particular Beecham.

    Those of us who saw him in his last days were shocked and saddened at the state of his health and would wish to remember him in happier times - a tall but slightly stooped, shambling figure to be seen in places as diverse as Orpington, Shrewsbury, Highgate, Eton, Birmingham. Blackfriars, Ipswich and Westminster, half carrying, half dragging an outsize red cricket holdall, frequently out of which would be hanging a sleeve of an old cricketing sweater limply, yet defiantly, waving at the passing world.

    To Doug's devoted family we offer our sincere condolences. (G.D.S./J.M.B.)

    Lord Kinnaird KT., KBE., - Etonian (EFA Report 1971-1972)

    The Committee records with deep regret the death of Lord Kinnaird, who had been Patron of the Association since before the war. In his youth he did much to popularise the game, and his donation of the Kinnaird Cup has for almost a half century inspired many to enter for the Amateur Championship, and has had a very profound influence in raising standards of play generally.

    Dr A R Kittermaster - Salopian (EFA Report 1997-1998)

    It is sad to record the death of Dick Kittermaster at 71, a three-times winner of the Kinnaird Cup with fellow Salopian, A R B Moulsdale, in 1954, 1955 and 1956. He was a former member of the EFA Committee.

    Dick had a distinguished career in medicine and was a fine, well-respected games player. He was the son of Sir Harold B. Kittermaster, who was Governor of Nyasaland (Malawi) and who died in office in 1939. Dick, his mother and sister, moved to Canada where Dick went to Ridley College. He returned to the U K after the war and went to Shrewsbury. From there he went to St John's College, Cambridge, attained a half-blue for Eton Fives and became Captain of the game.

    At St Thomas' Hospital, London, he qualified as a pathologist and in 1966 he became Consultant Pathologist at Kent and Sussex Hospital, Tunbridge Wells, retiring in 1992.

    Dick was a good cricketer, having played for Shrewsbury, St John's College and St Thomas' Hospital. He was also a single figure golfer, a game which was his passion. He was a Board Member of Rye Golf Club and he would have been a golf pro by choice. Bridge was something else he excelled at, having learnt the game at Cambridge. Our sympathies go to his wife, Liz and their three daughters. (G.D.S./J.B.S.)

    Robin Moulsdale writes:

    I don't remember when I first met Dick. We were both schoolboys at Shrewsbury, involved in working a bit and playing every game we could find. We must have played against one another at junior levels, though Dick did arrive late, from Ridley College in Canada.

    My first clear memory is of returning from a School Fives match against Uppingham, missing the train and spending the night in the ticket collector's box waiting for the milk train from Birmingham station.

    We met again at Cambridge, where Dick had gone as a medic straight from school. I'm not good at dates nor records, but I'm sure he played three years for Cambridge, as did I, but only once together. Which year we first entered the Kinnaird I can't recall, but I do remember the Times comment when we lost our first final in 1950: 'The combined ages of the winners, J M Peterson (Salopian) and C E W Sheepshanks (Etonian), was 48 years more than the combined ages of the losers.

    Thereafter we played in the Kinnaird every year until we had won it for three years on the trot and felt it was too difficult to go on travelling to various parts of the country, playing two very nice chaps whom we beat easily and then driving a long way home. The change to the present weekend system came too late for us.

    But we had wonderful fun over the years. We won a lot of matches, but the May brothers were better than we were. John and Peter, together, were a very powerful pair. I played with Peter for Cambridge and once we played the Old Salopians (A R Kittermastar and M L Y Ainsworth) in the Emmanuel court. It was an epic match, as good a game as I ever played in, Cambridge just sneaking through in the fifth.

    H. Le Bas (EFA Report 1976-1977)

    The Committee notes with great regret the announcement of the death of Hedley Le Bas.

    In 1947, when the EFA had lain dormant for ten years, he was the driving force behind its revival and became its first post-war Hon Secretary. During the next five years he tackled energetically and systematically the legacy of problems the war had left, and his contribution to the negotiations with Queen's Club about repairing the Fives Court and his efforts to ensure that the majority regarding the 12-point game should be known and heeded will be long remembered.

    T. E. Manning - Old Citizen (EFA Report 2001-2002)

    Tom Manning has been one of Eton Fives' unsung heroes and a wonderful man of hidden depths that were not common knowledge, mainly through his own sheer modesty.

    For over twenty-one years he was Master-in-Charge at City of London and he coached with a dedication that led to their winning the Public School Championships for the first time in 1963 with C. S. H. Hampton and P.A. Hall and all three senior pairs beating every school pair they met. These years of devotion to City of London Fives also spawned more than a generation of enthusiastic players who became the strength of the Old Citizens Fives Club, leading to their golden age in the '60s and '70s. Not only did the Old Citizens find that they at last had the players to call on for what became legendary fixture lists, but they also achieved the first Old Citizen win In the Kinnaird Cup in 1969 with C. S. H. Hampton and S. H. Courtney.

    Tom went to the Crypt School, Gloucester where he played Fives with a tennis ball in a hybrid, three-walled court. On going to Cambridge, where he became a first-class classical scholar who turned to modern languages, he learnt Eton Fives and played no small part in the renovation of the court at Emmanuel College. He described Eton Fives as an absorbing game and has left notes he made on his connection with the game during his Cambridge years, 1929 to 1933. These have become an invaluable addition to the EFA archives.

    Teaching at Whitgift Middle School was Tom's first career move, where he became Master-in-Charge of Rugby Fives and in 1945, he joined the staff at City of London. He combined a high degree of skill as an athlete with a rare ability as a coach. As Master-in-Charge of Eton Fives he soon saw that the two open courts - at times used for storing coal or coke - were covered and lit and that all six courts were totally refurbished. He also ran the third rugger XV, organised school sports and saddled himself with full responsibility for cross country. Also, almost 1,000 boys from City of London went on the foreign visits that he ran most successfully, mainly to France between 1948 and 1970.

    It was characteristic that in his retirement Tom Manning returned to school to continue coaching Fives and run the secondhand bookshop. He also devoted more time to the Samaritans, probably an unknown side of his life to most of the pupils he taught as well as the majority of his colleagues, and to other local community projects.

    Tom was a person of selfless interests. He saw that a job needed doing and simply got it done through good and an innate determination, which, coupled with his quiet authority, ensured success with the minimum of fuss.

    Many will have fond memories of his clear, distinct and expressive voice and recollections of his wide range of achievements for others, but it was his unassuming demeanour, almost bordering on humility, which commands so much admiration.

    To his wife, Hilda, and their two sons, Anthony and Patrick, both Old Citizens, we express our sorrow at their sad loss

    J.Marston - Aysgarth School (EFA Report 1987-1988)

    It is with great sadness that we report the death of Jeremy Marston, Master in Charge of Fives at Aysgarth. It was entirely due to Jeremy that the game flourished at what is a relative outpost in the Eton Fives world. His enthusiasm and coaching ensured that good pairs would represent Aysgarth in the Preparatory Schools and Under 14 Championships year after year. We offer our deepest sympathy to his wife, Rosemary, and his family.

    J.W.H.May - Carthusian & C.E.W.Sheepshanks - Etonian (EFA Report 1990-1991)

    Two of the greatest players of Eton Fives were John May and Charles Sheepshanks. They added much to the game in their time.

    Peter and John May, from Charterhouse, were perhaps the most accomplished pair of all time, and such was their domination of the Kinnaird Cup for the three years they entered, 1951-1953, that they lost but a single game. Had they not gracefully retired - pour encourager les autres? - while still maintaining their prowess and distinction in other sporting fields, they would have continued unbeaten for years.

    When two such remarkable athletes turned their attention to Eton Fives, the results were devastating. The power and precision of their play allowed their opponents little respite and little time even to contemplate how to attempt to stand up to the unrelenting pressure they imposed upon a game, the result of which was never in doubt.

    Earlier, there had been an astonishing display of power in the Public Schools Championship final of 1950, when John completed three consecutive, vital rallies in the fifth game by hitting the ball low off the right-hand wall dead into the box. It was a presage of what was to come.

    Etonian Charles Sheepshanks, gifted all-round sportsman too, was one of the great artists of Eton Fives. He revelled in the intricacies of the game, and using to great effect the rubber facing of the gloves prevelant at the time, he baffled all but the most wary with his science and cunning - few effected such cut and such spin. His partnership with Jack Peterson survived the Second World War, their first Kinnaird win being in 1935, their last in 1950, a remarkable achievement. Charles' last match in the competition was with another of his life-long friends, Alan Barber, who was later to become President of the Eton Fives Association.

    John and Charles, for all their successes at Eton Fives and their love of sport, were very different exponents on court. Off the court, though, they had much more in common than one would at first suppose. Both enjoyed their cars, the Sunbeam Talbot , the Buick: both rendered exemplary services in their professions in accountancy and in schoolmastering: both were respected by an enormouse circle of friends, drawn from both work and play: both were a source of love and inspiration to their families. Moreover, a meeting with either, by chance or design, was such fun. ((D.J.S.G.)

    P B H May., CBE - Carthusian (EFA Report 1994-1995)

    If ever one player's name in Eton Fives has been synonymous with that of a legend then Peter May must rank foremost. As a pair with his brother, the late JWH, also from Charterhouse, they were- never defeated. In fact, only once were they taken to five games, namely by D. J. S. Guilford (Old Harrovian) and T Hare (Old Etonian) in a Jesters match versus Cambridge.

    It was in the Kinnaird Cup, however, that they proved how invincible they were, winning in 1951, 1952 and 1953, ruthlessly demolishing all opponents 3-0, except in the 1953 final when D. J. S. Guilford, partnered by M. J. Shortland-Jones (Old Harrovian), took one game.

    Possibly the May brothers were the two most outstanding players in the history of the game and other leading players of their time readily acknowledged that the result of a match was never in doubt, Although opponents felt that they had had good rallies and long games they usually came off court having achieved very few points. The secret was that most rallies were only when the May brothers were serving. Their cuts were normally irretrievable and they seldom failed to return cuts.

    Peter May made another valuable contribution to Eton Fives, that of sportsmanship. With perect manners both on and off court and despite his extraordinary talent coupled with an innate determination, he exuded a modesty and consideration for other people which was just as much one of his hallmarks.

    The committee, for the survival of Cambridge court games, enlisted his support and he had also been a member of the EFA Committee. Had he survived, and if he could have been persuaded to serve the EFA again, at a time when the governing body is very much looking to the future, he would undoubtedly have been able to lead the committee with a strong sense of purpose and the lustre of his name and character could have been magical to the fortunes of Eton Fives. Alas, not to be. (G.D.S.)

    Letter from M. J. Shortland-Jones to The Daily Telegraph, December 1994:

    Your obituary, article and letter on Peter May pay eloquent tribute to the cricketer but make no mention of his outstanding abilities as an Eton Fives player.

    By the time he came up to Cambridge in October 1949, his reputation had reached awesome proportions: I went up in the same year, and with five blues still in residence there was never any doubt who would fill the vacant place in the side to meet Oxford. As luck would have it one of the old blues withdrew, and so in 1950 Peter and I were both awarded our half-blues, he to play in the first pair and I in the third; in 1952, when Peter was Captain, we played together in the first, and I have vivid memories of my earnest second-fiddling to his virtuoso performance on the top step. It was in large measure due to his play that Cambridge won in all three years.

    In 1951 he paired up with his brother John, and over the next three years they were an unbeatable combination; indeed, in all the Kinnaird championship matches they only once failed to win three-nil. Thereafter Peter withdrew from the Kinnaird competition and rarely appeared on court again.

    As a player he was an example to us all in his attitude and expertise: he had assimilated the best qualities of his mentors at Charterhouse, and an opponent rarely had the need, and never the time, to ask for a let before it had been offered. Much has been said about his unassuming demeanour on and off the field of play, yet in fives he taught us that successful attack is based on a sound defence. He showed a quickness of reaction that allowed him to take the ball so much earlier than was the norm at that period, together with an agility and speed about the court that were unexpected in one so tall. Those of his generation would echo Hamlet's words,'l shall not look upon his like again.'

    Reflections of Robin Moulsdale October 2005
    Dick Kittermaster always propounded the theory that in those finals (Kinnaird 1951 & 1952) we won more rallies than the Mays, but they cut better than we did. It's a nice idea. They certainly were splendid games. I have a memory about lets which I have told often and may be a dream, but playing with Peter for Cambridge, Peter asked for a let, was refused and was so irate Oxford didn't get another point!

    G.R.McConnell - Harrovian (EFA Report 1967-1968)

    The sudden death of G R McConnell, a former member of the Committee and twice winner of the Kinnaird Cup, was a sad blow to his many friends in the game, both from Harrow and elsewhere.

    C Mead - Aldenhamian (1940-2003)

    BTO News (circulated to members of the British Trust for Ornithology) carried an obituary for Chris Mead who was " the public face of the BTO" and often appeared in the media talking about latest research, population trends etc. " He was educated at Aldenham School where he showed sporting prowess in cricket and, improbably, Fives." He went up to Peterhouse in 1959.

    U. Mohammadu - Aldenhamian (EFA Report 1999-2000)

    We report the sad death of U. Mohammadu who won the Public Schools Competition with the late D. R. Barker in 1959.

    Constructed 18th May 2000 by Mike Fenn
    Updated 18th May 2003
    efa@etonfives.co.uk

    Go to EFA Home page