1798 – First Fives courts built

Fives – historically also known as ‘hand tennis’ – is an ancient game that has many different versions.

It is not known when Fives was first played at Shrewsbury, but reference is made to “the present fives courts in the School Garden” in a pamphlet published in 1784 by S. Johnson, called ‘Proposals for enlarging the School playground, which would suggest that some version of the game was already well established.

In 1798, two ball courts for ‘bat fives’ were built back-to-back behind and below the School Buildings. A plan of one of the courts survives, which shows that it was an irregular shape, with few right angles. It was also a great deal larger than a modern Eton fives court.

Photo: The Old School showing the old ball courts

The front wall was 25 feet (7.6 metres) high and 23 feet (7 metres) wide, and it had short wing walls set at an obtuse angle to it. The back of the court was 51 feet (15.5 metres) at its widest point, and the depth from the front wall to the back of the court was 71 feet (21.6 metres). There was also a five-foot-wide space running round outside the sides and back of the court.

The game was played with a bat, roughly 50cm long and 10cm wide at its broadest. The ball was like a modern fives ball but less than 4cm in diameter.

The game could be played as singles or doubles, and scoring went up to 16 points.

Bat fives came to an end when the School moved to Kingsland, and soon after 1882, five uncovered Fives courts were built according to the dimensions and layout used at Eton. From then on, the Eton game of hand Fives was adopted and played at Shrewsbury.

The first inter-school fixture was played in 1897 against Uppingham.