EFA
International Report 2005-2006
France
Courts in ProvenceOn the 12th of May I was delighted to be able to hop on the motorbike in Zuoz and head down past Milan and Turin en route to the latest craze (maybe quite literally) in the fives world. Arriving in the village of Grillon, Provence that evening I decided to follow a car looking quite lost, which did indeed eventually lead me to Nigel Cox’s converted farmhouse and barns, complete with one standard and one southpaw fives court, with buttress on the right. Guests were greeted first with a five-star meal with plenty of wine, after which John Reynolds - having played a game on it earlier in the day - announced to me “Seb, I’ve got to show you this court. It’s impossible to return cut!)” Thus in tired and cheerful state and still wearing biking leathers and boots, I hit my first cut returns on the southpaw court. And it was remarkably easy. Not so the following morning: when playing against Ron Pattison I didn’t come within a foot of a single cut.
Over the weekend we played fives every day, got involved in sanding the rough surface finish off the courts as it was tearing through balls rather quickly, naturally did a little shopping in the local vineyards and were consistently spoilt by the top-class chef whose services Jennifer had secured for the weekend. These were two hugely enjoyable days - I’m sure all participants would like tojoin me in repeating my thanks to Nigel and Jennifer for organising a fantastic weekend.
I can very strongly recommend a visit to Grillon for anyone who has a taste for the eccentric and a sound psychiatric compsition. Anyone who is borderline mad is more than likely to be tipped over the edge by the southpaw court. It was best described over the weekend as “undoing 30 years of hardwiring in five minutes.”
Seb Cooley
India
Gujurat States Sports ClubThe Eton Fives Federation of India has become an affiliated member of the Eton Fives Association.
Nigeria
e-mail from Patrick Abobi - Secretary General Fives Federation of NigeriaI am glad to convey to you that the 15th national sports festival tagg Gateway Games 2006 has just been concluded. For Fives there was a great development since the history of Fives in Nigeria, a new Fives court was constructed in Ogun state venue of the festival.
The following states registered and participated Ogun, Lagos, Kaduna, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Imo, Edo and Abuja
Gold medals was awarded for the 3 events namely; singles, doubles and team while the females participated on demonstration.
One good thing is that 4 new states namely Edo, Imo, Lagos and Ogun took part for the first time. Apart from the northern states who originally play fives the game is now expanding to other regions of the country.
Kastina state came 1st winning all the gold medals
My hope now is to visit UK with the Kastina State team to feature in your tournaments.
Patrick Abobi
Switzerland
Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz and Zuoz ClubFives at the Lyceum has continued strongly this year, with a lot of young talent very keen on the sport and getting involved in tournaments and matches within the school. Our older players have been involved with several tours and tournaments with old boys and English players both in Switzerland and London.
Our main England tour this year was to the Schools’ championships at Eton College. Four boys travelled with Seb Cooley and battled well against English pairs who had been playing all winter (The Zuoz fives season begins in March due to snow and excessively low temperatures). Eton were excellent hosts, making available accommodation in their houses as soon as term had ended. Our players, as ever, benefitted greatly from the competitive atmosphere at the tournament and rose to the challenge of playing more experienced schoolboys.
Our second trip was to play in the Zürich Fives club (run by Zuoz old boys) season opening tournament. This takes place annually on May 1st and is a family occasion with barbecue and a few gentle games of fives, though a competitive few always get together for a good run-around.
These events were all merely warm-ups for our own Engadin Challenge Cup, played on the spectacularly sunny weekend of 10th and 11th June. Although the enjoyment was almost ruined by sightings of three fluffy clouds on the horizon on Saturday morning, our 14 pairs of schoolboys, old boys and English guests (plus a rogue Australian) battled the elements and braved almost certain sunburn to compete for a pair of peppermills and some glasses of balls. The schoolboys have, to my great delight, really learnt from the few external fixtures they have now had and their games are greatly improved, demonstrated by representation in semi-finals and final. The final this year was won by organiser Daniel Haering… there were some grumblings that his assistant had won it two years previously. Maybe it is the assistant’s turn to keep a closer eye on his organiser in future. As ever the tournament included the very enjoyable dinner in the restaurant Dorta although T.Walters jnr, possibly under strict orders from his partner Mr Haering, did not visit the St Moritz clubs or indeed make any attempt to hitch-hike to Milan.
The following weekend, the Geneva-based Old Boys’ group held their annual European Championships and again 7 students made the 6-hr train trip down on Friday afternoon with me to participate. This is another excellent weekend, where the Schoolboys and girls can get together with the old boys for fives, dinners and chat and indeed this year’s addition of some impromptu karaoke on Saturday night. Those who embarrassed themselves will remain nameless! Again, four students, three old boys and the master-in-charge completed a good mix for Sunday morning’s semi-finals.
Seb Cooley
International Report 2005-2006
Created 24th March 2007
efa@etonfives.co.uk