Fab fives

It may not be widely played, but this is a great sport for everyone, says Freddy Gray 

 Fives is not a popular sport. In fact, if the internet is to be believed, no more than 4,000 people play it in Britain, with a scattering of die-hard enthusiasts abroad.

But then very few people have ever had the opportunity to play. Fives, which is similar to squash — save that it is played with a hard ball, which is hit with gloved hands instead of a racquet — is played almost entirely in British public schools. Some state schools do have courts, but not many. If it is thought of at all, the game is regarded as a privileged eccentricity,

a distraction for boys more inclined to use their hands for hitting balls than anything approaching hard labour.
It would be quite wrong, however, to dismiss the game as an elitist anachronism for no-hopers. Fast and furious, fives is a sport worthy of the best games ­players, and it makes for challenging entertainment for lesser humans. As William Hazlitt put it, the ‘game of fives is what no one despises who has ever played at it. It is the finest exercise for the body, and the best relaxation for the mind.’

But even in the few schools where fives is played, it still only appeals to a minority. My school, Bradfield, had a strong fives tradition, yet most pupils preferred basketball or hockey. (There could be no better proof of the lack of competition for a place in the fives team than the fact that I was made captain, even though I had hardly won a match.)

Fives is further obscured by the fact it has no single standard form.