Fives
“Eton Fives is a civilised - and civilising - game.”
John Reynolds
11-time National Champion
It is an unusual sport in that, from the first House and School matches right through to the National finals, the four players in court must referee it themselves; it underpins the whole sport that the players deal with their opponents with respect, honesty and diplomacy. It is also usually a new sport for our entrants and is truly co-educational: boys and girls can compete with and against each other.
Shrewsbury is one of the country's strongest schools in Eton Fives, which is a major sport in the Lent Term.
School matches are arranged during the Lent term for boys and girls of all ages against all the major Fives playing schools, including weekend trips to play our London-based rivals. House leagues and knock-out tournaments are also central to the Lent term programme.
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Fives Success
Both our boys and girls enjoy regular national success: 43 Shrewsbury pairs have won their age group titles in the last 20 years. Among these, we had all-Salopian finals of the girls’ Open and of the mixed tournament in 2018 and 2019 and rounded off a wonderful 2019 season with a win in the boys’ Open too.
2022 has proved a particularly successful year for Fives; for the first time in 10 years, the Richard Barber Cup had Shrewsbury's name on the trophy, The Williams Cup also came to Shrewsbury for the first time in a decade, and 80 pairs represented Shrewsbury at the National Schools' Championships, of which two of our mixed teams competed against each other in the Under-18 final.
Old Salopian Players
A key part of the Fives philosophy is continuing the School’s principle, For Life, ensuring students want to continue playing when they leave.
The success of this is evident looking at university teams: Oxford and Cambridge's sides contain Salopians more often than not; one of our first-ever girls to play went on to win a half blue and captain the Oxford ladies, winning the Universities Championship with her Salopian partner in 2016.
The Old Salopians play in the national leagues and won both the 1st and 2nd divisions in 2019 and again in 2020.