Bloxham School Under 13 Fives team finish 2nd in triangular tournament v Pilgrims’ School and Blundell’s
Six boys from Bloxham’s Second Form travelled to Winchester College at the weekend to take part in the school’s inaugural Under 13 Fives fixture, played on the College’s historic courts this is where Bloxham’s Founder, PR Egerton, learnt the game as a schoolboy.
Our opponents were Pilgrims’ School from Winchester and Blundell’s School from Devon. Fives is one of the most historic of school sports, having been played on Bloxham courts since the 1860s. Our set of rules, dating from 1881, are thought to be the oldest in existence. For those unfamiliar with the game, Fives is similar to squash, but played with two gloved hands rather than a racquet. A Fives team consists of four players, so we changed the line-up between the two matches to ensure that everyone got some time on court. Fives is very much about the taking part rather than the results, but for the record Bloxham finished second in the triangular tournament.
Against the hosts, Pilgrims’ School, the boys lost 29-48, but against Blundell’s they won 42-40. Scoring in Fives is cumulative, so even if a player loses his match it contributes to the overall score; therefore the points scored by Hamish and Geronimo in their 9-7 doubles loss against Blundell’s proved crucial to the team’s victory. Will won both of his singles matches, and he and Cameron played well in defeat against Pilgrim’s. Our number one player, Jonny, lost both of his singles matches 9-8 against experienced opponents but showed plenty of promise for the future, and our first pair of Jonny and Seb had an excellent 9-3 win against their Blundell’s counterparts. Seb took his duties as captain extremely seriously and did a great job of getting this group of players together for practices beforehand. Mr Matthew drove the minibus and provided the coaching as well as arranging the fixture in the first place.
The games were played in an exemplary spirit throughout. We were extremely well looked after by our hosts, including an excellent lunch before the games, and are very grateful to them and to Blundell’s for allowing us to join their traditional fixture. The boys have now got the taste for the game and are keen to play more matches. They certainly showed the potential to make great progress in this sport.
SJB