Saturday 25th March saw the rebirth of what was always a traditional fixture for the School’s Fives Team…the visit of the OU’s. The fixture hadn’t been held since the late 1980s so the re-birth of one of Uppingham’s great sporting traditions was finally resurrected.
The OUs who attended were Clive Smith, Stuart Watson, Nick Preston, Dom Wallis and Ed Timpson and they were joined by the Headmaster, Dr Richard Maloney, who donned his gloves for only the second time in his career - which marked only the second time a serving Headmaster has played a game of Fives, following in the footsteps of the Headmaster who brought Eton Fives to Uppingham, Edward Thring.
Despite wiping cobwebs from their gloves, painfully disturbing long lost muscles and realising old hips might soon have to give way to new ones, the OUs were pleased to see that what was first learnt on the Constables Courts had not been forgotten. Their slight of hand, cutting actions and court tactics proved slightly too much for the School’s young, talented and emerging team. Given that the School Team only started the game proper last term when Fives was once again designated a full sport, the School should be proud of just how quick this team is progressing. Only the week before, they’d appeared for the first time in 25 years at the National School’s Championships at Eton and did themselves proud by securing victories against much more experienced opposition including Ipswich 2 and Westminster 2. But perhaps the greatest performance was reserved for the Girls’ Pair of Zara Tweed, Uppingham’s first female Captain and Charlie Bowman who played in what to date was their most thrilling and compelling match only narrowly being defeated by a very experienced Shrewsbury pair 13-12, 12-11.
The OUs hope that popularity for this great game will grow at the School amongst the Girls and the Boys and once again Uppingham will become a force to be reckoned with in the ever-expanding Fives playing world.
Stuart Watson (SH 73) and Dominic Wallis (F 82)
Nick Preston (C 74) and Clive Smith (M 68)
Ed Timpson (LH 87) and Dr Richard Maloney
