A recent newspaper headline read “What is the Home Office for?”

It’s the sort of question every organisation should ask itself once in a while – so what then is the EFA for? Our role in overseeing and facilitating the management of the game is fully reported in the pages that follow. But the most important task we have is to help secure and shape its future, so that Eton Fives continues to flourish and expand wherever it can be played.

Shaping the Future
The future of Fives has dominated the EFA’s thinking since we published our new Strategy for Eton Fives in 2005. Initiatives we have taken forward in the last year include:

- tightening the EFA’s links with schools through my visits to the Headmasters or Principals of all senior and junior Eton Fives-playing schools in the country (I have five to go!).
- the production of EFA Codes of Recommended Practice for Masters in Charge and Club Secretaries
- introduction of a new Ladder event to encourage Fives to be played outside the framework of competitive Leagues
- One Wall Fives, an initiative of James Toop’s with official support from Teach First, is being spread throughout inner city schools in the boroughs of Croydon and Kensington & Chelsea.
- development of IT to support a data base of all players and a management system for fixtures
- a coaching week-end for Masters in Charge last autumn.
- the first dinner for all Club Secretaries, to thank them for their efforts and to share views of how we can combine to strengthen our game still further at the adult level
- our link up with the Rugby Fives Association to form the Fives Federation with whom our January Newsletter and this Report are the first publications.

A practical example of our work in the last year follows a call I had from a Deputy Headmaster last June who said

“We’ve got a couple of Eton Fives courts which no one ever uses. I’m sure we could put them to good use. But we have no master to run it, the courts themselves are dilapidated, there’s a Christmas tree growing out of the wall between the two courts, we have no funds to spend, no one in the school knows how to play the game, nor has anyone here played here for 20 years. Could the EFA advise us on how we might get the game re-started?”

We went to inspect the courts (the Christmas tree was indeed very fine!) and had detailed discussions on site; we drew up a basic step by step strategy, accompanied by a coaching plan; a simple approach was adopted to get the courts into reasonable playing condition to start up; the EFA voted the funds through our Charitable Trust to pay for the refurbishment; and a coaching day was set in April to see what would happen.

Here is the message which I received from the school at the end of that day:

“The newly renovated Fives Courts and details about the game were introduced to students yesterday, and we were delighted to receive a wonderful and enthusiastic response from all ages. The Deputy Head attended the trial sessions and there were well over 100 students, and numerous members of staff, who came to the courts to register their interest and have a quick go at playing. An official opening of our courts will take place later in the year.”

The school is St. Bartholomew’s, Newbury. Forty pupils initially signed up as players in May; and in July, near the end of term, forty eight players – that is, every single player in the school – will go down to Windsor for the day to play a match against the boys at Eton.

This is one exciting example of how the EFA is trying to make a real difference in the world of Eton Fives. In the last year, we have helped to expand and strengthen playing numbers or have offered to fund court refurbishment or additional coaching at a number of other schools including , St. Bees, Q.E. Barnet, Emanuel, Mill Hill, Shrewsbury and Stowe. This all comes on top of similar help we extended last year to Uppingham and Westway.

Sponsorship
In recognition of the ambitious nature of this programme, and to encourage us to be even bolder in our approach, HSBC - decided in January that they would increase their annual donation to the EFA from £1500 a year to £5000 a year for the next three years. We are immensely heartened by this huge vote of confidence in the future of Eton Fives from so vital a supporter as HSBC, with whom we have had such a fruitful relationship for over twenty years, and who support our Schools Championships so generously. We shall make sure that these funds are used in the most productive way possible to continue to expand our ambitions and horizons for the future.

IT
One key development which supports every aspect of our forward agenda is IT. The Board considers it vital that the EFA should lead the way in marshalling the potential of the internet to facilitate and strengthen the whole fabric of our game. Targets of this programme include creating a data base of all players in the country; support for the management of Clubs and their fixtures; facilitation of the “pull through” of young players leaving school into the adult game; and driving forward the Ladder initiative.

The Board has devoted much time and effort during the last year to shaping the way forward in this key strategic area. Many willing hands from the EFA are working with IT professionals to develop systems, tailor-made to the intricacies of our game, to support our wide-ranging agenda. We anticipate spending some £10-12,000 over two years to achieve a new 21st century IT system with its own website which will help the future management of the whole game, and especially in those areas of greatest need, namely Schools, school leavers, Under 25s, Universities and Competitions. We are sure that this major investment in supporting and shaping the future of our game will be one from which all Fives players will benefit.

Exploding the Myths
The EFA is like any trade association: we seek to reflect the views and priorities of our members, and are only as strong as the support which our activities receive from our schools, and members, without which we can achieve nothing. But we do require that support to be active, visible and generous. In shaping the future, we aim to build on the traditional structures of schools and Clubs while adapting the culture of the game to the 21st Century. As we pursue our agenda, I perceive that there are certain myths woven into the culture of the game which are not entirely well-founded, for example:

• that young players can be relied on to seek out the clubs themselves when they leave school.
• that the game should cost almost nothing to play;
• that Fives courts need no regular maintenance and attention;
• that those who run the game are immortal and will go on for ever;
• that good communications need not be part of Fives management;

These myths must be exploded! Every Club in the EFA must play their part in doing so. Furthermore I call on every individual EFA member to become an ambassador for Fives, especially within their own former schools, encouraging, guiding, supporting the game, enthusing young players, and persuading them to move on into the Club Fives world as soon as they leave.

So every Fives Club in the country should ask themselves the question that I posed at the beginning about the EFA: what is our Club really here for? I suggest that, in addition to the efficient running of adult Fives, the closeness of all Clubs’ links with their schools should exceed by far those which the EFA has now established throughout the schools community. I hope all Clubs will put this on the agenda for their annual Club meetings.

Eton Fives Appeal
So our programme is bursting with new initiatives, and I can report that around the country the game generally is thriving. But complacency must never colour our attitude to a game which in too many places does remains fragile. None of what we are trying to do can be done on thin air. In addition to the time which so many people give to the game, we also need funds - to support coaching and court refurbishment, to widen the game’s frontiers, to develop IT, to halt wastage of young players, and to build up our reserves for the future. So in the year to come the Eton Fives Charitable Trust will launch a major appeal throughout the Fives community to support all that we are doing to secure the game for the future. We shall call on all Fives players to give generously.

People
I have been wonderfully supported throughout the year by my colleagues on the Board, to whom I give a collective ‘Thank You’ for their commitment, vision and sheer hard work. This year we have welcomed as new members John Cooley who ran our Ladder events; Dan Hawkins who, in addition to running key competitions for us, is also overseeing the IT programme; and Howard Wiseman whose coaching, management and energy leave no corner of the game untouched. I would also like most sincerely to thank Martin Samuel, who retires from the Board at the AGM in September after serving for three years; he has given his experience, support and advice unstintingly to me and the whole Board during that time, as well as running our EFA fixtures with such enthusiasm (which he will continue to do). All Board members have worked beyond the call of duty in the service of the game. I would also single out our indefatigable Secretary Mike Fenn, and our devoted Treasurer Martin Powell as people whose judgment and enthusiasm I would value in any context in which I have ever worked. We are fortunate indeed to have them.

The EFA Board as a whole is demonstrably a team, united by our love of the game, by our awareness of its potential to develop, by our dedication to its future and by the contributions of individual Board members who are active in the management of the game far beyond the frontiers of the Board room.

We have set a destination for the game, and are confident of our progress towards it.

R.P.F.B. – June 2006

Chairman's Report 2005-2006 by Richard Barber
Created 24th March 2007 : Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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