Fives
Blundell's must be one of the oldest fives playing schools in the country, with records going back to 1625. Fives is still played throughout the year, although the majority of school fixtures take place during the Easter term. The school has six Rugby Fives courts which, unlike Eton and Winchester Fives courts, have no buttressing.
Sherborne, King’s Bruton and Clifton College provide the bulk of local opposition although the school team has been known to travel as far afield as Radley, Bloxham and Rossall for tournaments. 2003 saw the first Blundell's Fives Tour to Scotland. School teams enter the National and West of England Tournaments each year. The school also hosts touring Club teams such as Deep West and The Jesters and a number of Old Boys regularly return to use the courts.
All Blundellians, regardless of experience, have access to the Fives courts, which underwent extensive renovations a few years ago. Both gloves and balls are provided by the master in charge and stocked in the school shop.
Fives 2012
Captain of Fives:Matthew Oddy P
Reichwald Cup 2011
We had a most sucessful Reichwald Cup Fives Tounament on Sunday. 32 players were involved 12 OB's and staff plus 24 pupils. The normal doubles format was observed. We were blesssed with extremely good weather. Competitive and enjoyable fives was played throughout the afternoon. The standard was high and bodes well for the coming season. I would like to draw special attention to the junior players involved, particularly Ben Clarke and Jack Lockwood for their gutsy performance and Emily Combe for her beguiling serve. A special mention should also be made of Georgie Scott who in best Blundellian tradition, stepped up at very short notice to take the place of an absent player, and walked off with the main prize! CHD
Reichwald Cup Winners 2011
Sam Wyatt Haynes/ Georgie Scott
1st Plate
Tom Mcpherson/ Alastair Chilcott
2nd Plate
Christian Larder/Alex Scott
3rd Plate
Tom Hillman/ Harvey Scott
We had a very exciting day of Fives at Pilgrim's School, Winchester and the U13 and U12 squads aquitted themselves admirably and played in the best spirit of the Game.Victory was spread evenly between Blundells and Pilgrims.
U13's
Toby Francis, Will Klinkenberg,Jack Lockwood and Archie Stoneman
The two teams were pretty evenly matched, Blundells beat Pilgrims in singles and doubles 115 -79 points.
Toby Francis played very energetic and skilled singles winning both his matches (11-3,11-4) and Klinkenberg and Lockwood gave a dogged and strong performance in the doubles (11-8,11-2). Archie Stoneman was a stalwart through out.
U12's
James Maclaurin, Charlie Fanous,Henry Olsen, Harvey Wiider.
Pilgrims won 121-49.
This was a very encouraging start for Blundells , who despite being out played gave some really feisty performances. It took a while for our players to get used to the butress!. James Maclaurin displayed skill, determination and excellent court coverage in both singles and doubles format.
Fives 2011
Captain of Fives:Matthew Oddy P
| Senior A | Senior B | Junior A | Junior B | School House | Ladies | |
| RFA | Lost 114-176 | |||||
| King's Bruton | Won 166-25 | |||||
| Pilgrim's Winchester | Won 176-141 | |||||
| Blundell's Staff | Lost 108-176 | |||||
| Malvern College | Won 141-114 | |||||
| Clifton College | ||||||
| Sherborne (H) | Won 66-1 | Won 66-6 | ||||
| Marlborough | Won 66-9 | Won 51-35 | ||||
| Sherborne (A) | ||||||
| Kelly College | Won 53-37 |
v RFA
On Saturday, our Senior VI played their first competitive fixture, at home to the RFA. In the end it was a close-run thing but a victory for the RFA in both singles and doubles, 176-114 overall; nevertheless it was a promising start to the season and particular congratulations are due to 1st pair Matt Oddy and Sam Wyatt-Haines, who not only won both their singles matches but also their doubles game as well.
Blundells 1st pair - Sam Wyatt-Haines & Matt Oddy Blundells 2nd pair - George Daykin & James Reid Blundells 3rd pair - Nick Cumberlege & Ed Carlton
Singles
Wyatt-Haines bt Tim Lewis 15-4
Oddy bt Keith Kennerley 15-5
Daykin lost to Bob Hitchings 15-5
Reed lost to Dan Hill 15-2
Cumberlege lost to Guy Durant 15-7
Carlton lost to JN (making up numbers) 15-7
Total: RFA 69, Blundells 51
Doubles
Blundells A bt RFA A 15-10, 15-10
RFA B bt Blundells B 15-7,15-0
RFA C bt Blundells C 15-9,15-2
RFA B bt Blundells C 15-2
Blundells B bt RFA C 13-12
Total: RFA 107, Blundells 63
OVERALL: RFA 176-114
v Pilgrims
On Sunday we hosted Pilgrims' from Winchester; the Blundell's SH team of Ben Steer, Will Scott, Cam Seymour, Dan Pyle, Ben Clarke and George Hill emerged victorious 176-141 in the end, excellent Fives having been played by all (with some especially nailbiting doubles matches!)
v Blundell's Staff
There was a hard-fought contest between the 1st VI and the Staff on Saturday afternoon - captain Matt Oddy and his partner Tom McPherson did exceedingly well to win 4 out of their 6 games, and although the Staff pairs won the other 14 games there was a high standard of Fives throughout and most games were exciting and competitive. It was good to see both Tom and Alex Scott - who are both still in yr 11 - more than holding their own at this level. Eventually the Staff emerged victorious by 176 points to 108, the most successful pair having been IRD & PFR who won all of their games. Mr Wheatley was also particularly impressive on his competitive Fives debut, having never played doubles before!
Summary
IRD/PFR: bt Oddy/McPherson 11-9, 11-7; bt Daykin/Scott 11-4, 11-2; bt Reid/Cumberlege 11-0, 11-6
RDJM/CHD: lost to Oddy/McPherson 6-11, 6-11; bt Daykin/Scott 11-6, 11-3; bt Reid/Cumberlege 11-3, 11-1
JN/BW: lost to Oddy/McPherson 4-11, 6-11; bt Daykin/Scott 11-7, 11-7; bt Reid/Cumberlege 11-5, 11-3
Total: Staff 176, Blundells 108
U13/U12s v Kelly
Blundell's U13's and U12's had a successful win against a Kelly College IV (all year 8) 53-37 on Wednesday 2nd Feb.
The first pair Daniel Pyle and Jack Lockwood won 31 -18 with an exciting 3rd match 9-11 to Kelly. the second pair played toughly contested games winning closely 22-19. All games were played in a competitive but sporting manner and our team were a credit to Blundells. CHD
Colts Competition
...produced some extremely exciting Fives!
There were some gripping semis, Jack Webber winning against Alex Scott 11-9,11-9 & Tom McPherson beating Harvey Scott 11-4, 12-10. The scores speak for themselves. In the final Tom Mcpherson won the Rivett Cup against Jack Webber 11-3, 11-4.
There were good games in the Plate competition as well. NicK Ladd won with maximum points of 44, closely followed by Sam Mills with 42.
The Rice Cup
Sam Wyatt-Haines won the Rice Cup for Senior Fives, beating Matt Oddy 15-2, 15-10 in a closely contested final. He had previously beaten Tom McPherson in a competitive semi-final, while Matt had beaten George Daykin. In the third place playoff, Tom came from behind to beat George in the deciding game; the standard of Fives was excellent all round.
On Saturday, we took 6 boys (one of them a Colts pair) to Malvern (all of whose boys, bar one, were U6th). Despite having to adjust to buttressing and a longer court than they were used to, and despite several carrying injuries - Matt to his knee, George to his shoulder and Tom to his elbow - the boys performed admirably and recorded a comfortable victory overall, despite the standard of competition being perhaps the highest of any fixture this season.
1st Pair: Matt Oddy & Sam Wyatt-Haines beat Malvern 1 [15-9]
Singles: Matt W11-5, L8-11; Sam L7-11, W11-7
TOTAL: Blundell's won 52-43
2nd Pair: George Daykin & Nick Cumberlege lost to Malvern 2 [3-15]
Singles: George L6-11, W11-8; Nick W12-10, L8-11
TOTAL: Blundell's lost 40-55
3rd Pair: Tom McPherson & Jack Webber beat Malvern 3 [15-4]
Singles: Tom W11-8, W11-0; Jack W11-1, W11-3
TOTAL: Blundell's won 44-12
OVERALL: Doubles: Blundell's won 33-28
Singles: Blundell's won 108-86
TOTAL: Blundell's won 141-114
6 Way Girls' Tournament at Marlborough
I took a squad of 6 up to the Girls fives tournament at at Marlborough; Susie Durant, Irene Tse, Alice Smith,Emily Combe, Amy Cross and Lydia Gibson.
6 schools were involved with a total of 36 players from under 13-18. This was the second year of the event and a first appearance of Blundells.
I was extremely proud of all the Blundells players. They conducted themselves in an exemplary manner and played with passion and commitment through out.
U16
Irene and Susie played well against much more experienced opposition. They played each other in the plate competition susie winning the plate final in a tight match 15-11. They played in the doubles plate final losing competitively to Malvern 2-1.
U13
Because of the small U13 draw, the under 13's were amalgamated into the U14's, for the opening rounds so that Blundells was playing a year above their age in many matches. great experience.
Alice Smith did exceptionally well to get to the Final of the U14.s, Emily Combe got to the Semis.
Amy Cross won the u13 cup beating Emily Combe 16-14 in a nail biting game.
Alice Smith and Emily Combe won the U13 doubles cup beating Amy Cross and Lydia Gibson 15-4.
Fives Archive: 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010