Fellow Half Blues Andy Pringle and Laurence Cook returned to Cambridge at the weekend to represent the RFA in a match against the current students. And, very successful they were, too!
Both won their singles matches and then paired up in the doubles – and continued their perfect record. In total, and despite some rather confusing swapping of team members, the RFA ran out as comfortable winners in the annual fixture by 119 points to 75.
The Executioners confirmed themselves as the go-to guys for home-less teams – especially when there’s a slap-up meal afterwards. No less than five club regualrs – Ben Hale, Guy Matthews, Laurence Cook, Edd Horder and Dick Warner – took part in the Jesters Club’s annual Strawson Memorial match agains the Rugby Fives Association on Tuesday October.
The match was organised by Dick with his usual flair, meaning that no one was ever really sure who was playing for which side – and the result of the match was (as usual) declared as a tie. However, we imagine that debate over the actual scores continued long into the night during the post-match meal at the Queen’s Club.
You can read a full account of the evening’s events on the RFA website.
Several club members took part in the RFA’s Owers Trophy at the weekend, organised by our own Ben Hale – who actually spent most of the day at the Test Match!
Dick Warner led an Old Rugbeian side that also included Conrad Davies, but the most successful club member was James Birch (pictured here, left), who played for the Old Bradfieldians, the eventual runners-up.
We can now happily confirm that the club’s regular Wednesday night sessions will start up again on September 4th. As ever, we thank St Paul’s School for hosting us, and players are welcome on the courts from 7-9.30pm.
The club has now had confirmation from St Paul’s School that our practice on July 3 will be final session of this term. We then have a few weeks off and our next session will be in the first week of September.
If you want some Fives in the meantime, they play at Alleyn’s School in Dulwich every Tuesday evening, and at UCS, near Finchley Road in North London, on Wednesday evenings. Or go and try some 1-wall handball at the Westway – also on Tuesday evenings.
The club recently had a visit from one of its founder members, Dave Fox (on the left in this photo).
He now lives and works in Manchester, where he plays at the Y Club – and to a high level, as his recent win in the National Veterans Doubles Championship proves.
He was in London for a board meeting of his business, the Tampopo restaurant chain, so arranged a game with fellow director (and current Executioner) Steve Platts and Sam Roberts – now master-in-charge of Fives at St Paul’s and also a founder of the club some 30 or so years ago.
There’s no official record of the match result, but the four smiling faces in the photo above probably tell their own story!
Two club members spent an enjoyable day at Bradfield last weekend, taking part in the annual Winchester Fives Mixed Doubles Championship.
We have a good record in the event – Andy Pringle and Alex Steel have won the title three times – but sadly neither Andy nor Ibby Lee was able to scale those heights this year.
Andy and Alex did well to win their round-robin group and claim a place in the semi-finals. But here they had to play the defending champions and were too tired to mount much of a challenge. At least they had the consolation of winning the third/fourth-place play-off…
Meanwhile, Ibby (playing with Sam Russell, pictured above) had a very tough draw – her round-robin group included both pairs who would go on to play out the longest and closest final in the history of this event. Still, they won one game and did well in the Plate.
Although they missed out on a place in the Plate final, they did beat the eventual Plate-winners in the round-robin.
