Warminster School - Warminster Fives

Warminster Fives

Behind School House stands a Fives Court, built in 1860. It is believed that the first Fives Court at the School was built in 1787, although the origins of the pamphlet that Mr D.J.S. Guilford assigns this claim to are unconfirmed. Fives has some similarities to Squash. The court is similar in size but has a stone floor. No racket is required - only a pair of padded gloves. Unlike squash where normally you will play either right-handed or left-handed, in Fives you need to be as ambidextrous as possible.

Warminster Fives is likely to be the same game as Wessex Fives, which originates some centuries ago, when men and boys used the buttresses and walls of a church and hit the ball with their hands against the walls - the angles of the buttresses and walls lending variety to the game. It might then have been a game played as singles or doubles.

Wessex Fives was played in the West Country against the walls of inns and more frequently, church towers, where the glaziers were often called in, it seems, to repair the stained glass windows. In 1754, the Bishop of Bath and Wells ordered the game of Fives should cease to be played against church towers as undoubtedly over one hundred years glaziers' bills were beginning to be felt with some pain by the exchequer.

Multiple versions of Fives were developed, the most common today being Eton Fives and in Wessex only a small following remains, mainly from Winchester College who play what is now more commonly known as Winchester Fives.

Rules for Warminster Fives are quoted by Mr Tony Baden-Fuller on the Eton Fives Website as:

• Each side shall consist of three players, occupying the positions of 'squi' (left), 'centre', 'skunk' (right).
• That side wins which first scores twenty-one points, and points can be scored by the serving side only.
• That side which first serves concedes three points to the other side. Each member of the side serves in turn.
• Each member of the serving side must at the dapping of the ball stand with at least one foot within the marked line which joins the outer end of one sidewall to the outer end of the other sidewall. If this rule is not observed, the opposing side may claim 'all side out' but the claim must be made before the next service.
• The server, after dapping the ball (three daps only are allowed), must strike it so that it rebounds off the middle wall and falls outside the black line.
• If at the service the ball rebounds from the middle wall to a sidewall and falls outside the marked line, the opposing side may claim a 'baulk' or a fresh service.
• A 'squi' may be claimed by the opposing side if the ball rebounds either perpendicularly from the middle wall or back in the server's direction; then a second service must be given. However, if the opposing side successfully returns a 'squi', the ball is 'in play'.
• The server is 'put out' when the opposing side wins a rally.
• That side wins a rally which last returns the ball to the wall successfully. A rally is lost if the ball goes off the court, or daps twice, or does not strike the wall above the ledge. A 'ledger' is'not up'.
• A 'baulk' (or a fresh service) may be claimed i) if before touching the wall the ball touches one of the side opposing the striker, ii) if on rebounding from the wall the ball touches one of the lost striker's side.
• When a side has scored twenty points, then the server in all following serves must cry 'game' on dapping the ball and must cry 'ball' on striking it. The opposing side, if they wish, may refuse to take two serves. If the server fails to cry either 'game' on dapping the ball or 'ball' an striking it, the opposing side may claim 'all sides out'; this claim must be made before the ball is dapped for the next service; no claim may be made unless the ball has been struck by the server.
• No player may impede another player's access to the ball; if he is unavoidably in the way, he must stand still or move one foot only; otherwise a 'baulk' (or a fresh service) may be claimed.
• Any ball landing on the middle wall or sidewall below the ledge or on the brickwork above is out of court. Any ball landing outside the line around the court is out of court.