Now you can play Fives without going to Eton

Article from The Kensington & Chelsea Chronicle 11th February 2010

Traditionally the preserve of public school players, Eton fives is attempting to reach out to the wider community. ED SAUNT visited the only public courts in Britain at the Westway Sports Centre to get to grips with his 'blackguards', 'buttresses' and 'pepper-pots'.

I'll throw it into play, you cut it to the right of the blackguard line back towards the pepper-pot and then get onto the top step and we'll rally," said Ben.

Predictably, my first effort at joining in a game of fives was pretty disastrous. This ancient public school game still carries all its old terminology, seemingly in an effort to make us mere non-fives mortals remain eternal outsiders.

But at the sprawling sports centre hidden underneath the Westway near Ladbroke Grove they are taking quite a different approach.

The four courts here are the only public courts in the UK and, once I explain to Ben that I've got no idea what he is talking about, he and playing pals Josh and Felix take time to help me learn the rules.

Fives is an extremely complicated hand-ball game, played as doubles on a three-sided court similar to a squash court. The object is to force the other team to fail to hit the ball off the front wall, using any variety of wall or ledge combinations, a task made all the more complex by the three-foot buttress jutting out into the middle of the court.

The buttress - and the dimensions of the court as a whole - are a direct replica of the side of Eton College Chapel, where schoolboys began playing handball against the wall in the 17th century.

Sixteen-year-old Ben Carlin lives just five minutes down the road from the Westway Sports Centre and has been playing since the courts were built in 2001. He said: "It's one of the few sports I am actually good at. It's unusual and you don't hear of many people playing it except in rich schools."

Ben and Alex Peppiatt, 15, who go to Twyford Church of England Comprehensive School in Ealing together, are among the most experienced young players who come along to sessions on Saturdays.

Alex, who lives in nearby St James Gardens, said: "Fives is a sport that you usually don't get to try out unless you go to a public school like Eton or Harrow. When I was younger I wasn't very sporty - I didn't play football like the rest of the lads - but I got involved in fives and really liked it."

Fewer than 4,000 people play fives in the UK, there are just 35 sets of courts and very few are open to members of the public.

Fives development manager at the Westway, Pete Cohen, is keen to get as many youngsters as possible from local estates playing the game and try to broaden its appeal. He is in talks with local state schools and Kensington and Chelsea Council in an effort to bring more local people into the sport.

He said: "These courts are used a bit but they need to be used a lot more. It's a great sport for all ages and abilities and we want to appeal to people across the board, not just the public school institutions."

FIVES: THE JARGON EXPLAINED

Step: The step approximately halfway up the court, which forms the dividing line between the front court and the back court.

Front Court: The part of the court between the step and the front wall.

Back Court: The part of the between the step and the back of the court.

Buttress or Pepper or Pepper-pot: The hazard protruding from the left-hand wall of the court. Inspired by a stone hand-rail on the steps at the bottom of Eton College chapel steps, which formed part of the original court.

Dead Man's Hole: The small three-sided niche formed where the buttress meets the step.

Cut: The return of service and the first scoring stroke of a game. Sometimes known as a slam or a smite. The Cutter is the player returning the serve.

Blackguard Line: The vertical line on the front wall about three feet from the right-hand wall. A cutter has to play the ball to the right of this line if it does not hit the right-hand wall first