This year’s Rossall competition was bigger and better than ever before with over 50 pairs taking part in the Open and Under 15 tournaments, with both age groups having a doubles and a singles competition. If you have never seen it before, Rossall Fives is a hybrid game that has features from all three codes of fives – Rugby, Eton and Winchester.

As usual the U15s event started on the Saturday evening after the buffet dinner put on by Rossall School in one of the boarding houses closest to the courts. Due to the weather most of the courts were damp and unplayable so Howard Wiseman and his Olavian hordes headed to the courts armed with newspaper and spare cloths to get them dry and ready for play. The U15s got under way on three of the eight courts with entries from Rossall School, Emanuel, St Olave’s, Bedford, Malvern, Lancing College and Westway, with all events then continuing the following day.

The knockout stages had some very close matches with Sam Ridgeway from St Olave's causing the upset of the tournament by knocking out the top seeded Malvern player in the quarter-final.

The Open singles final saw the Lancing captain Mylo Scurr take the title, beating the top Rossall player. The U15s Final, an all-Olavian affair, ended with Tony Barker beating team mate Harry Ravi. The Open doubles final saw Malvern – the defending champions – retain their title by beating the Olavian 4th pair of Matt Haygreen and Sharvil Kirtikar, whilst the U15s doubles final produced a win for the top Westway pair of Alex Peppiate and Sam Matthew, who beat Rossall in the final.

This was an extremely good event that had many entries from a wide range of schools. I would like to that Rossall School for hosting the event and Charlotta Cooley (Rossall Staff) for running the event on the day.

D.E.A.R.

Rossall Schools International report by Dominique Redmond
Finalised 16th June 2009 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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