The ultimate result for the Fives Coaching Agency, is when “unknown” or derelict courts are brought back to life. There have been some superb examples of such courts in recent years – most notably those at Stoke Newington (six Rugby Fives courts) and the two at Eaton City of Norwich School (two Eton Fives Courts). The discovery of two indoor Eton courts at Dover College, both in mint condition has also encouraged the belief that there are more courts elsewhere, just waiting to be discovered (Dover has first to move the maintenance department to a new location before they can be used!!) Some twelve years ago, I went to see the courts at St.Bartholemew’s in Newbury – hoping that they could be brought back to life. I met with the Head of Games who was able to report that Wolverhampton Grammar School used to come and play a match against them each year (even though they did not really have a “home” team in operation), but that there had otherwise been no real life on the courts for decades. My own opinion at the time – still new and inexperienced in the art of “making things happen on Fives Courts”, was that nothing could ever happen with these two derelict, open-air courts. I left the site, happy to have seen another set of courts, but resigned to the fact that they would probably never be used again for their intended purpose. Six years later, I remembered the Newbury courts, and realised that since that visit, we had brought back to life other open-air courts such as High-Wycombe, Stoke Newington and Norwich and that all play on the Zuoz courts was also open-air. Looking back, there was no reason why Newbury could not be brought back – one to re-visit in the future.

Six years further down the line, and The Eton Fives Association is contacted by St.Bartholemew’s to see if we can do anything to resurrect their courts. The school saw how the template already in place at other comprehensive schools with regard to coaching would fit their needs (pupils pay a subscription per term for weekly lessons, on rotation in normal lesson time), and it was soon agreed that Fives had much to offer the school – especially the notion that pupils could also use the courts to play Fives in their own time, and that everyone who took lessons would be automatically included in the school Fives Team. A Grant from the EFA, together with kind assistance from Rok Builders, enabled the courts to be “made good” – the floor was over-laid with tarmac so as to be safe and suitable for play in all weather conditions.

A long day of recruitment was put in by Steve Piper (the visiting REFCA Coach), and assistant Ryan Perrie (from the Westway Fives Coaching staff). Enormous interest was generated through visiting form rooms, presentations in assemblies and registration times, and a couple of hundred girls, boys and staff visited the courts during the day to have a go and to see what was happening. A week later, over forty girls and boys had subscribed and paid for their Term of lessons. The forty youngsters are largely from years 7 and 8. This number is expected to double when Fives is exposed to the new year 7 and years 11 & 12 in September. The aim is to play matches on other multiple-court venues, such as at Eton College, so that the majority of the team can travel together by coach and all be involved in fixtures at the same time. St. Bartholemew’s will be a particularly important addition to the fixture list of those schools who have pupils starting at age 11. St.Bartholemew’s will play Fives during the Summer as well as during the Season. In due course, a roof may even appear!!?? There is likely to be a very large team at St.Bartholemew’s – this is a most exciting development.

Fives continues to thrive at School level in general. A most exciting development is about to commence with “Northern Fives”. St.Bees school in Cumbria is to take on a full-time REFCA gap-year Fives coach starting in September 2006. Having run the Rossall schools’ Championships for ten years now, Rossall School itself (who rarely enter the event) have appointed two REFCA coaches (a young lady and a young man) to also start in September 2006 with the aim of re-launching the sport across their school to both the girls and the boys. They have eight courts, and realise that this is an extremely valuable all-weather facility that they have not been using to good effect for decades. Rossall Fives is a genuinely neutral code of Fives that all Rugby, Eton and Winchester Fives players can play on level terms and which can be adapted to in almost no time. The Rossall courts will enable various Northern Fives schools to play each other across the codes and also to meet mid-way geographically. This is a real boost to Northern Fives, and various REFCA schools will be taking tours from Friday to Sunday so that they can tour to Rossall, Aysgarth, St,Bees and Sedburgh.

REFCA Fives tours to Switzerland were well attended last season, and four different schools are taking part during June and July 2006.

REFCA has benefited from superb coaching staff who have helped to service almost thirty Rugby , Eton and Winchester schools this past season. To James Bristow, Andy Pringle, Ed Crichton, Ed Rose, Daniel Grant, Anthony Theodossi, Ryan Perrie, Steve Piper, Dominique Redmond, Mark Herring, Douglas Foster, Tom MacDonald, Ian Fuller, Matthew Wiseman and Alex Moore – very many thanks both on behalf of REFCA, but also for what you do for Fives.

H.M.E.W.

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Rugby & Eton Fives Coaching Agency Report 2005-2006 by Howard Wiseman
Created 24th March 2007 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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