Mark and Mark Yates Play Eton Fives at Midlands Tournament

[StaticTremor]

@readinglts I'm guessing if they used racquets everyone would be dead of massive head injuries in ten seconds flat.

[DevilBladerX]

man eton fives is actually been played at skls, im the my skls squad and were gonna play nationals at 31st of march

[spanishyoruba]

is this inspired in the basque game of pelota mano (eskupilota)?

[hendabomb]

@spanishyoruba no

[mofisa]

malay college kuala kangsar has the only court in Malaysia

[mcheckley]

Once upon a long time ago (40 years) I was VERY GOOD at this. It's an amazing, fabulous game - cricketers tend to be good at it. And the ledges are not as hard to manage as you might think - you learn to anticipate the trajectory from wall - to ledge - to floor - to another ledge - and position yourself to play it. Sad that facilities are confined to a handful of schools, so only boys and old boys of those schools get to play. Thus adult participation is very limited. It's a GREAT game.

[readinglts]

i feel like if I even attempted this game I would just keep getting hit with the ball. And I just cannot make any sense of it. Is there a specific reason that they dont use rackets? I looks kind of like handball to me but way different as well

[daredd5]

It originated at Eton school from kids playing with a ball at the bottom of a set of stairs whilst waiting for start of matins at the chapel. They were just killing time with a ball, therefore no rackets.

[maven21]

intense sport that polo and quite a jump from playing the Fives. Are you with a club?

[Ramanjuna]

Of course there was no time to change clothes so you ended up sat there all afternoon in class - sweaty as anything after charging round the fives court at lunchtime in your uniform! Well worth it though - great game, well worth the indigestion running about after a hurried lunch and then the tellings off for continually being late back for double Chemistry on a Weds afternoon.

[Ramanjuna]

At prep school there was always an overwhelming demand for the two courts over at the senior school. If you were lucky enough to get a slot to play it would be posted on the noticeboard at morning break. You then got to jump the lunch queue, choke down a quick bite, grab gloves & ball out of the fives pidgeon hole and RUN over to the senior school for 20-30 minutes of fives. Often you'd end up losing track of time and arrive back late for lessons "sorry sir, had fives!" That was only 1991-93

[rasklatz]

rugby fives is so crap doesn't even hav a f******* pepper

[joshingrey]

i was at the match and play at least 5 times a week its a rubber and cork ball so is quite hard and you hit it with leather gloves at a wall basically you can play rugby fives on a squash court and its only the serve thats different but a really good sport

[conartist321]

What's going on here? Is it like squash or what?

[ciananal]

you do realise the irish have been playing handball, a far quicker and more skillful form of this sport for around 300 years? I don't mean to offend anyone, I'm

just saying that if eoin kennedy or paul brady got onto an alley they'd beat all comers, and have..

[tompw3141]

Handball's a different game. It's like saying someone who plays tennis woudl be amazing at badminton.

[SpiderJon]

Handball's a fine game, but Eton Fives is very different (just look at the ledges and angles on the wall surface). I've no doubt that Eoin Kennedy and Paul Brady would adapt well to Eton Fives, but there's nothing much to be gained by playing "my game's better than your game" - they're different, and equally good to their players/supporters.

[franfred11]

mate, it's completely different.

[amn68]

Thanks. It brought lots of memories back when I used to play Eton Fives in school between 1964 to 1968. Our school Malay College Kuala Kangsar, is the only school in Malaysia where we can play this game.

[stephencraigen]

i play fives at school. Its so underrated and great to watch if you know wtf is going on lol.

[PrideofEngland123]

tht is me!!! lol was a gd game

[MarkWilliamYates]

Fame at last - Sky Sports contract beckons! Was a good game, shoulder still aches.

[PrideofEngland123]

lol ye it was.....really lol i herd u went on and won the comp...must hav been a gd win against howard!!

[goshensquash]

Is this not doubles handball on a makeshift court? It looks fun.

[tompw3141]

No, it's Eton Fives. Different game.