 A game ofRugby fives in progress | |
| Highestgoverning body | Rugby Fives Association,Eton Fives Association |
|---|---|
| Registered players | <4,000 (estimated) |
| Characteristics | |
| Contact | No |
| Team members | Singles, Doubles |
| Mixed-sex | Yes |
| Equipment | Fives ball, fives glove |
| Presence | |
| Country or region | Commonwealth countries, in particular the United Kingdom |
Fives (historically known ashand-tennis) is an English handball sport derived fromjeu de paume, similar to the games of handball,Basque pelota, andsquash. The game is played in both singles and doubles teams, in an either three- or four-sided court.
The origin of the name "fives" for the game is uncertain, but two main theories are commonly presented. The first is that it is derived from the slang expression "a bunch of fives" (meaning a fist);[1] the other that an earlier form of the game, as described byNichols, used five-a-side teams.[2]
Fives is generally considered to have originated from early forms of the FrenchJeu de paume. Games were most often played against the walls of the north ends ofchurchyards,[3] or against the walls ofbelltowers.[4] This often damagedwindow glazing, so many churches adapted their exteriors to protect against the game. This often came in the form ofshutters andpintles inserted into walls, as well aslatticework over the windows themselves. The sport also influenced the layout of several churches; at some churches,saplings were planted where Fives would have been played,[5] at theChurch of St James, Ashwick, a cross was moved "to the Vifes place... to prevent the Young People from spending so much idle time in that sort of exercise."[6]
As such, many of the earliest written testaments of the game are directives by clergy taken to prevent playing of the game. Actions against the game (then referred to as either "hand-tennis" and "hand-ball")[7] have been found as early as 1287, when theSynod of Exeter banned the game due to the damage it caused to church buildings.[8] Other notable examples of wall ball games being banned includeRobert Braybrooke,Bishop of London, who in 1385 prohibited the game "Necnon ad pilam infra et extra ecclesiam ludunt." (English:Let them play ball neither inside nor outside the church.)[9]
The name "fives" was applied to the game by 1591, as whenElizabeth I visited the village ofElvetham in Hampshire, she was entertained by theMarquess of Hertford by a game played by hisservants:
"about three o'clock, ten of his lordship's servants, all Somersetshire men, in a square greene court before her majesties windowe, did hang up lines, squaring out the forme of a tennis-court, and making a cross line in the middle; in this square they (being stript out of theirdublets) played five to five with hand-ball at bord and cord as they tearme it, to the great liking of her highness" –John Nichols,The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, Volume II.[10]
The version of fives played here is an example ofWessex fives, the common ancestor to all modern fives games. The first known fives court was built at the base of thechurch tower inWest Pennard, Somerset, in 1813. By this time, fives had achieved some popularity inWales, where it was referred to as "Ffeifs" – many courts and matches were referred to as "fives courts",[5] although whether these were for playingWelsh handball is unclear.[citation needed]
In the beginning of the 19th century, fives was played as apub game especially inSomerset, and many courts were built alongsidepubs, attracting large numbers of spectators. Gambling was often present at these matches. The courts at these pubs were different from those used later in the century, consisting of a free standing wall (which were, as such, referred to as either "fives walls" or "fives towers"), occasionally with a buttress attached.[11]
During this period,John Cavanagh, reputed to be the greatest fives player of all time, gained popularity.[5] However, after around 1855, the sport experienced a serious loss of players, due to the prominence of other "more sophisticated" sports, such assquash, and was seen as old-fashioned due to itsagrarian roots.[12] As described theBadminton Library:
The number of those who continue fives players after the age of twenty-five is very small; and, for obvious reasons, these veterans are usuallyschoolmasters. Again, fives is entirely a game for amateurs. It has no professors who make their living and their renown as its teachers or exponents. It has no matches to be reported in newspapers with a minuteness of detail suitable to events of international importance. No fives player, as such, has ever had his portrait published in an illustratedjournal, or has had the meanest article of dress in thehosiers' shops named after him. Indeed, the game is not one that tends to exalt the individual player.
At the end of the 19th century, fives wasgentrified from its origins as arural sport to anelitist sport atpublic schools; codified forms of the game such asEton fives andRugby fives were introduced in the 1870s, which spread to schools such asHighgate,Westminster,Charterhouse andHarrow.[13] By the end of the 19th Century, fives had become a well-established sport for British public schools.[5] In the 1920s, the sport began to be played atCambridge University. The first recorded fives match was played betweenEton andHarrow in 1885 (F. Thomas and C. Barclay of Eton beat E.M. Butler and B. R. Warren of Harrow).[citation needed]
Fives continued to be played through the 20th century, but failed to develop a large nation standing. This was because it had a tradition of being arecreational sport played in free time, the large number of varieties of the game in play, and because the "more sophisticated" game ofrackets was already established.[14]
Several regional varieties of fives exist; however, most games played are eitherRugby fives orEton fives. Of the two,Etonian fives is the older, being played since the 17th century.[15] The two major variants of the game differ primarily in the construction of the court, with Eton fives including abuttress and inside the court, and an open back wall.[16]
Other variants of the game includeWarminster andWinchester fives; Winchester fives has similarities to both Rugby and Etonian fives in regards to court construction, while Warminster fives dates to the late 18th century, and uses a specialised set of rules.[17] The majority of fives-playing schools have only one type of court, although three schools have historically had both Eton and Rugby courts:Cheltenham,Dover, andMarlborough.[citation needed]
Eton fives is a form of the game which, unlikeRugby fives, is played only in doubles form. The sport was first created atEton College (hence the name) by boys playinghandball between two buttresses of the school chapel[18] with rules for the game being created in 1877 under the title "Rules of the Game of Fives as played at Eton".[citation needed]
Eton fives is played in three-sided courts around the size of a squash court[19] mimicking the sides of the school chapel, with abuttress (referred to as a "pepper-box"[20]) on the left-hand wall, and a raised step at the front of the court, extending around 80 cm into the court, at a height of 15 cm,[21] creating the "upper" and "lower" parts of the court.[22] A sloping ledge runs around the walls of the court, roughly four and a half feet from the floor, of which the bottom line is dubbed the "playline", above which shots have to be played. The upper limit of the court is the "coping" – stonework that lines the top of the walls.[23]
The first purpose-built fives courts were built atEton College in 1840, by then headmasterEdward Craven Hawtrey, who constructed four courts mimicking the sides of the school chapel. These courts varied in a few specifications; the distance between the front wall and the buttress was increased, and the floor'sslope was reduced, which quickened play speed. The courts were built ofsandstone, to reproduce the effect's of the chapel's walls,[24] which are made ofTaynton stone.[25]
The first Eton fives match was played on 12 February 1885, between Eton andHarrow School, playing at Harrow's fives courts.[24] Eton fives began to be played at theUniversity of Cambridge in 1920, withvarsity matches beginning in 1927.[26] The sport is regulated by theEton Fives Association, which promotes the sport and runs tournaments annually. While Eton fives has historically been a male-dominated game, due to the public schools it was played in beingsingle-sex, in recent years, women have begun to take a larger role in the sport, accounting for approximately 20% of games played as of 2016.[27]
Rugby fives, nominally developed atRugby School inRugby is the most common variant of the sport,[28] played in both singles and doubles. The variant is derived from Wessex fives, and was brought to Rugby in the 19th century byThomas Arnold, the then headmaster of Rugby School, who had learnt the game playing atWarminster School.[citation needed] Rugby fives is attested to inThomas Hughes' 1857Tom Brown's School Days, centered on the author's own experiences at Rugby, which align with the period in with Arnolds was headmaster. The sport isgoverned by theRugby Fives Association, which stagesmultiple tournaments for the sport annually.[citation needed]
Rugby fives uses an enclosed court free from "hazards", with a hollow board running across the front wall, similar to that ofsquash.[29] The court has a width of 18 feet and a length of 28 feet, with the front wall having a height of 15 feet. The Rugby fives court uses a shortened back wall, which has a height of 4'10''.[30] Rugby fives is most commonly played ingloves, using a leather-clad ball with a rubber core.[31] This ball is harder than that used in Eton fives, which increases the speed of play in the game.[27]
Fives is played at severalpublic schools throughout England, includingRugby School,Bedford School, andSt Paul's School (London), as well as by the universities ofOxford[32] andCambridge, which participate in an annualvarsity match in the sport.[33] As of 2022, Rugby fives is played in two state schools, namelyStoke Newington School[34][35] (whose courts were renovated byThe National Lottery in 2007[36]) andDerby Moor Academy.[37]
Winchester fives is a version of fives very similar to Rugby fives,[38] played originally atWestminster School[citation needed]. The sport has been played at Westminster since July 1886, when two courts were opened at the site.[39] The court used is almost identical to that used in Rugby fives,[40] except for a 45° change in wall direction for almost 10 inches on the left wall.[30] This makes the back of the court narrower, and creates a very smallbuttress similarly to that ofEton fives. This buttress also serves to diversify gameplay by allowing winning shots to be made more easily: sharp changes in direction are created by bouncing the ball off the buttress.[41] The game is played in doubles, with matches being played to either 11 or 15 points.[42]
The sport has no organisation of its own, butThe Schools' Winchester Fives Doubles tournament is run yearly by theRugby Fives Association.[43]
Warminster fives, also known asWest Country fives, is played at Lord Weymouth School, nowWarminster School. An 1860 fives court still stands at the school and was in regular use until the 1970s.[44] The court used in Warminster fives is unique in its construction: the court is similar to a fives wall, except for two small walls jutting from the front wall at 45° angles.[17] The court itself is agrade II listed building, first being listed in 1978.[45]
Warminster fives is likely to have inspiredRugby fives:Thomas Arnold, headmaster at Rugby responsible for the introduction of the sport at the school was previously a teacher at Warminster before joining Rugby.[46]
The Warminster variety of fives also differs greatly in its rules: teams play three-a-side; one on the left, center and right sides of the court (referred to as "squif", "centre" and "skunk"). The court has dimensions of roughly 8 metres in width and depth.[46]
| External image | |
|---|---|
 Fives-bat used to play Bat fives. Held at theRadley School Archives. |
Bat fives is a form of fives predating Rugby, Eton, and Westminster forms of the game.[47] It is very similar to the game ofrackets, and can even be considered an early form of the game, differing in the shape of thebat used, and the slightly smaller ball used in rackets.[48] The game was played using awillow bat with a curved bowl,[49] measuring around 21 inches by 4 inches,[50] with the end wrapped in leather.[51]
Bat fives was played mostly atRadley andWestminster, but was also played atRugby,Cheltenham, andAldenham.[52] It used courts similar in size tosquash courts,[53] with an open back, and with no buttress, step or hazards.[54] The sport ceased to be played around 1903,[55] in favour ofEton fives,[53] and most courts were demolished in the 1920s.[54]
When playing, a line was drawn on the ground around 10 feet in front of the front wall. Games were then played to either fifteen or twenty-five points. The 1914 bookThree Hundred Things a Bright Boy Can Do describes gameplay as:
The first player takes the ball, and strikes it against the wall with his bat above the line on the wall, and so that it may fall outside of the line on the ground. The other then strikes it, and the players then continue to hit it against the wall, either before it comes to the ground or at the first rebound, until one of them missing it, or driving it out of bounds, or beneath the wall-line, loses or goes out. The ball may fall anywhere within the side boundaries, after once being struck up by the player who is in.[49]
Fives is generally played wearingleather gloves.[56] The practice of which dates from the 18th Century – inJohn Newbery's 1744 children's bookA Little Pretty Pocket-Book, two fives players can be seen wearing white gloves on their right hands.[57] The balls used in fives generally weigh around anounce and a quarter, and vary in material – leather and rubber are most commonly used.[58]
As shown before, court dimensions vary greatly between different versions of Fives; however, modern day court construction is relatively uniform. Two main types of courts exist; traditional ones, and pre-cast courts. Traditional courts are built bybricklaying a form, which is then coated in acement render,[59] which consists of concrete andsharp sand (alternativelygrus), which is then coated inKeene's cement plaster.[30]Precast concrete courts are also available,[60] which are morecost-effective, and faster to build (traditional courts take 4–5 months, concrete courts can be erected in weeks) than traditional courts.[61]
There are some well-established clubs overseas, such as theZuoz Fives Club inZürich, Switzerland.[62]
Eton fives is the only version of Fives played in the north ofNigeria,[63] and is especially popular inKatsina State, being more popular in Nigeria than in England itself.[64] The sport was introduced in 1928 by former Eton pupil J. S. Hogden, who was teaching in thestate of Katsina (in the Provincial Secondary School) and inBirnin Kebbi.[65] The version of the game in Nigeria is played using atennis ball, as traditional balls "take chunks out of themud walls of the courts",[65] and gloves are not used. In Nigeria, fives is popular; theEmir of Katsina,Abdulmumini Kabir Usman plays, and has a court inside theGidan Korau [ha] Katsina Royal Palace.[66]
Fives in Nigeria is regulated by theFives Federation of Nigeria[67] Several inter-state tournaments are run, which include theSardauna cup andDan-Iyan Zazzau Super Cup.[68] The organisation also works to popularise the sport in Southern Nigeria.[69]
TheEton Fives Association has run multiple tours in conjunction with the Nigerian Fives Association to Nigeria to play the sport: one in 1965,[70] and a second in December 1984 (after which the Nigerian Fives Association visited England),[71] and most recently, a second tour by Nigerian players in 2019.[72]
Fives was played in schools and universities in Australia in the nineteenth century. A court was opened at theHutchins School in Hobart, Tasmania, in November 1877,[73] The court was described as "the only one, we believe, in the colony", and its dimensions as: "Length of floor, 21 ft.; height and width of court 14 ft. each. The court will be an open one, with a flagged floor, the walls will be built of brick, and cemented on the inside."[74]
The erection of a fives court on the Recreation Ground of theUniversity of Melbourne is noted in the Council minutes ofTrinity College in 1873,[75] and there were newspaper reports of an "annual tournament in connexion with the University Fives Club" in 1881, when ProfessorHerbert Strong acted as judge.[76] A double-handed tournament and a single-handed handicap tournament were played there in August 1883.[77]
Fives is played in some secondary schools in New Zealand, for exampleNelson College, New Zealand's oldest state school.[78]
Eton fives is played in Malaysia,[79] being introduced toMalay College Kuala Kangsar byCharles Ernest Bazell, the school'sOxfordian fourth headmaster, in 1923.[80] Two Eton fives courts exist, reopened in 2014, after 50 years of disuse.[81] These courts are speculated to have been the first in the country; however, a report byThe Straits Times from 30 April 1920 references fives courts at thePadang Polo (polo ground) inPenang.[82][original research?] Eton Fives teams from Malaysia have been entered into tournaments – in March 2015, two teams were sent to theUK National Eton Fives Schools Championship atEton College, reaching the Plate Quarter Finals.[83]
In India, Eton fives is played only atSt. Paul's School, Darjeeling, where there exist two courts built in 1899 by the brother of one of the school's formerrectors as a gift to the school.[84] Courts also exist inKodaikanal,[85] as well as at theLaxmi Vilas Palace, but these are not in use.[86]
Fives has been played in the United States since the 18th century, first attested to in aby-law inPittsfield, Massachusetts in 1791, where several forms ofball games were prohibited from being played within eighty yards of thetown hall to protect its windows.[87]
TheRacquet Club of Philadelphia built a set of Fives Courts in 1900, but these were quickly used for playingsquash.[88][89] Fives courts also existed at the old location of theRacquet and Tennis Club in New York City before it relocated in 1918, as well as at theChicago Athletic Association.[90] Fives has received little attention in America since the early 20th century; however,American handball players such asTimothy Gonzalez[91] and Mathieu Pelletier[92][93] have brought attention to fives by playing it.[citation needed]
Like in England, fives was also played in prestigious preparatory schools, most notablyGroton School andSt. Mark's School, Massachusetts. Of these, only Groton still plays, where three Rugby fives courts, built in 1884 byEndicott Peabody, are in use as of 2016. Until 2001, eight courts had existed atSt. Mark's School, Massachusetts, built byWilliam Greenough Thayer, and an annual competition between the two schools was held until at least the 1980s.[94] In March 1979, a tour of England was made by players from St. Mark's School, the first ever by American players.[95] Several other courts exist scattered throughout the country, for example one nearKezar Lake, and another at theUnion Boat Club inBoston.[96]
In 2021, Mexico's first Eton Fives court was built inOaxaca by Emilian Ruiz Ayala, a player who learnt the sport at theLyceum Alpinum Zuoz.[97][98] Fives also has a history in Brazil, several fives courts were built by theWestern and Brazilian Telegraph Company, although these were closed in the late 1920s. Courts also existed at theSão Paulo Athletic Club, which were eventually converted into a swimming pool. Finally, a set of fives courts were built atSt Paul's School in São Paulo in 1934.[99]
Bat fives was played in Uruguay at theMontevideo Cricket Club,[100] where there were two courts.[101]
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