Brigands And Charterhouse Christen Court Zero

Tom Leach reports:

03/10/25: On a balmy early October night, the great and the good of the West Surrey Fives world – otherwise known as The Brigands – convened upon Charterhouse School for the first match in many decades to take place on nine courts simultaneously in GU7.

(Ed. – if anyone can remember the last time Fives was played on nine or more courts at Charterhouse, please let us know!)

Charterhouse School, the hosts (and the Brigands’ opposition) fielded three 6th form pairs – two of them well-established (Jan & Bertie and Jules & Matteo) making up pairs 1 & 2 as well as one pair (Humphrey & Max) playing their first competitive fixture since they attended Cranleigh Prep five years previously and hence playing at pair nine. The school’s 3rd to 8th pairs were comprised of six U16 duos – Jack & Sacha, Lenny & Jake, Arthur & George, Henry & Tim, Peter & Justin and Milo & Kin. It was also noted that from the school alone at least 8 nationalities were represented: Polish, English, Swiss, American, Thai, Russian, Irish and Chinese to which we could add the Brigands’ Bulgarian representative, Kristiana!

The reason for such a multi-generational, cosmopolitan Fives bonanza? The ‘soft opening’ of what has become to be known as ‘Court Zero’ and the re-opening of five other renovated courts.

Over the Summer holidays and, in fact, right up until the last days of September the school’s Eton Fives capacity was down to just three courts (the three that had been renovated back in 2015) whilst under the watchful eye of Charterhouse project manager, Greg Hard, and with the advice of Eton Fives legend, John Reynolds, the other five existing courts were having their walls re-surfaced and re-painted and their lighting upgraded. A ninth court, the aforementioned ‘Court Zero’ had for many decades been used for storage and was in need of extensive repair – a passageway through the front-wall had to be carefully filled and skimmed whilst the whole floor was broken up and replaced with 140kg sandstone slabs.

Now that all nine courts were back in excellent condition, how fitting that the very day after completion the hosts, Charterhouse, were able to exploit all the courts in a match against The Brigands who play at Charterhouse every Wednesday evening during the Fives season and who have a close affiliation to the school with several Charterhouse Fives coaches and Old Carthusians in their ranks.

The standard of Fives was generally high – especially in the top three ‘show’ courts – but it was the Brigands who prevailed over the nine school pairs despite the adults being stretched to three games in a number of the rubbers. The Brigands lined up 1. Tom Leach & Justin Adie, 2. Matt Davis & Stuart Clarke, 3. Jamie Hepburn & Adrian Burrows, 4. J-B Garway-Templeman & Rob Walton, 5. Andrew White & Martin Powell, 6. Alex Knight & Richard Murray, 7. Kristiana Smilovska & Rod Smart, 8. Mark Platt & Tom Constable and 9. Danny Hewitt & John Gossage.

A number of (temporarily) non-playing Brigands such as Oli O’Callaghan-Brown, Simon Woolfries, Nick Higgins and Sandy Savage were also there to watch on along with one of the generous donors, Louise Pattison, and a dozen or more assorted parents, children, wives, schoolmasters, Madrilenian houseguests and canines.

Aside from the teams in charge of the works, thanks go to the EFA for their assistance and contributions to the scheme, several significant Old Carthusian donors from the UK and overseas who we hope will make it in person in May for a more official opening of the courts, the Brigands for their significant donation and perhaps the author of this report who allegedly also chipped in a few quid for Court Zero.

Despite kicking off the evening on the Fives courts at 6.30pm it was well-past 10pm when the last of the Brigands and schoolboys finished a convivial post-match meal and refreshments in the Peter May Pavilion with much of the chitter-chatter being about how soon we could stage the next nine-court match and dinner.

In an effort to amortize the 250k GBP renovation costs, Charterhouse U14s today turn out five pairs against a visiting Westminster team and look forward to welcoming Dale Vargas, Ian Hutchison and nine Harrovian pairs on Thursday week, 9th October whilst the Brigands’ next fixture is on the evening of Wednesday, 15th October when Newbury come to visit.