RFA President's Newsletter Winter 2026

A picture of the historic archive of fives balls in a display cabinet

President's Introduction

The membership of the RFA has risen to over 500, up nearly 100 from 4 years ago. 40% of members are 30 years old or younger, and 10% are women. This is something which the RFA is proud of. Fives is not just an ancient game for older men. There have been extensive efforts over the last few years to raise the profile of the RFA and make it more relevant to its members and the Fives community in general. We have supported several projects to upgrade courts - both technically and financially - secured alternative sources for our basic kit, fought off plans to repurpose courts (notably at Durham University), introduced indemnity cover for our clubs, which allows us to hire schools for our tournaments, expanded the number of events in which women and girls can participate (including mixed doubles events), and improved coverage of our major tournaments and our links with schools. The next big step will be to spread SquashFives to a wider community. The idea is to drive demand for facilities to play and make schools realise that Fives courts are an asset. All this takes time, money and effort. Any ideas, suggestions, especially when accompanied by willingness to take the lead in the project are always welcomed. You don’t have to be a Board member to make an impact as a coach, local organiser, or bring a relevant skill to our work.

Lake Kezar Tournament

Fancy a trip to New England?

In October, the second annual Lake Kezar Fives Invitational Tournament was played at the historic Rugby Fives court in Lovell, Maine, which dates from 1924. This tournament and the one held last year in the 100th anniversary year of the courts were reported in two news articles still available in the News section on the website (search "Kezar"). Following this year's tournament we also heard that the Boston based owner of the court would be happy to know of any UK based Fives player interested in playing in next year's tournament (or perhaps participating in an RFA trip there). His contact details are: Nick Margitza, Nick.Margitza@wsdevelopment.com +1 -207-660-2114. An invitation will be sent out a couple of months in advance. It will most likely fall on the 1st or 2nd weekend of October. Boston is probably the best bet for flights, and transportation up to the lake can be arranged. Note that the only other opportunities are at the Union Boat Club in Boston, and courts at Groton School, also in Massachusetts, currently used for storage. If you are interested in a more detailed history of Fives in the USA, go to this article The Forgotten History of Fives in the USA by Trevor Jones

West of England Schools Tournament

Guy Ayling, currently leading a revival of Fives at Mount Kelly School reported the following on Linked-In which drew a considerable amount of positive feedback. We'd like to congratulate the players involved - if you haven't already worked out who they were, read the next article! Our thanks to Guy for promoting our sport's values, and for allowing us to share this story:

"Recently, I witnessed one of the finest examples of good conduct and integrity in school sport in over 30 years in the game at the West of England Schools Fives Championship, warmly hosted at Sherborne School. A 14-year-old Mount Kelly pair found itself in the U18 knockouts against the St Paul's School first pair - without doubt the best pairing in the country. A duo that rarely drops a point, let alone a game. It could have been over in minutes. Instead, the St Paul's boys chose to create rallies. They played in a way that allowed ours to be genuinely part of something meaningful; to experience, positively, the game at its highest level. The scoreline was still 15-0, but the generosity of the St Paul's pair was deeply impressive. This is the spirit of Fives, but more than that, it was common decency; it was magnanimity. A quiet reminder that how we win really matters. I am a firm believer that sport makes good people. Perhaps sometimes though, it is simply the case that good people play sport."

Record-Equaling Win

At the same West of England tournament, we witnessed two brothers, Freddie and Joey Hammond Giles, winning respectively the Senior and U16 singles categories. At the time we though this might never have happened before but some digging in the archive showed that the Hajialexandrou brothers, Michael and Andy (St Dunstan's) had done so in 1984. Still a notable achievement with the potential to be repeated at National Schools. Freddie has won three WoE singles titles in succession and with his partner Josh Ferro, a "triple" of senior doubles titles. This has never been done before.

Ladies Nationals Tournament - An Affirmation of Women's Fives

The Women’s National Championship was held at Cambridge over the weekend of 7/8 February, and the match outcomes have been reported by Bob Dolby on the RFA website Titles for familiar names at the Women’s National Championships. There was, encouragingly, a substantial entry (27 in singles and 9 doubles pairs), with several younger players having developed notably since the same tournament last year. Julie McIntyre again brought a large contingent from Durham where she, with coaching help from Tom Wakelam and University players, introduces many youngsters to the sport. Credit also to Maddy Raynor for bringing up a group from deepest Devon. Sadly, Louise was the only competitor from Scotland, but travel time/expense is an obvious contributing factor. In all, 11 of the top 20 ranked players participated. As with the men’s game, 3 players (Camille Beattie, Louise Mathias and Shinan Zhang) are rarely beaten by anyone else, and set a standard for others to emulate. The singles final, played in an exemplary spirit, provided a clear indication of just how high that standard now is. Several matches were filmed during the weekend and the resulting edited recordings will be released on the RFA YouTube channel soon. Thanks to Ollie Arnold and Penn Chai for managing the cameras, and Louise Mathias for organising.

100th Anniversary celebration and dinner at Rugby School on 5th June 2027 - Save the date!

Spanish Balls made available soon

In an effort to ensure that Fives players are not entirely dependent on one source for key equipment, the RFA has been working with Pelotas Zulaika in Navarra, Spain, to produce a Fives ball with similar characteristics (size, weight, bounce and speed) to the Wiseman ball. This has now been achieved, and Zulaika joins a long line of prior manufacturers of balls for Fives (Jeffries, Slazenger, Gradidge, Wisden, Spalding, Cliff – see the photo of the RFA archive display). This is not the same company that made balls for the Wessex club, which was based in France. We now have a provisional agreement with Killshot in Ireland to import these balls and sell them (as with their new gloves) on their website. As soon as they are available for purchase, we will let you know.