KES Fives Back On The Map

Jon Shorrocks reports:

14/01/26: It’s been quite a while since we had competitive Fives going on at KES Birmingham, but over the past few weeks, the KES boys have stepped up to the plate and put the school firmly back on the Fives map.

In late December we had Hari Phillips partnering Old Edwardian Peter Scholey in the Turnbull Trophy where they were up against many of the best adult and school players in the country including several national champions.

They got a taste of that in the group matches where they lost to eventual runners-up Ipswich 1 as well as Charterhouse 1 and Shrewsbury 4 before recording a first win over St.Bart's 4. That sent them into Plate B, where you could see Hari visibly improving shot by shot and game by game. They won the first round 12-1 against Lancing before a narrow 9-12 defeat in the quarter-final against Shrewsbury 5.

That sent them into Plate C, which they then proceeded to win, finishing off with two 12-9 wins, against QEB 3 in the semi-finals and Repton 3 in the final.

Last Sunday it was the turn of the U14s -  Max, Jacob, Mahan and Sanjeev  - to play in the EFA Individual Tournament at Repton in temperatures dropping to close on zero. With each round a different partner was randomly selected so your progress through did, to quite an extent, depend on the partners that were chosen for you. Get a good one and you would win comfortably, get a less experienced player and you would struggle. I was most impressed by the quality of the KES boys as time after time they produced shots and volleys that simply took my breath away. It was also great to see them go for the volleys rather than wait for the ball to bounce. When it came to the final round our KES boys unfortunately had not quite picked up enough points during the rounds to qualify for the final. Disappointed we were but not dispirited or downhearted. We shall be back, hopefully representing KES at the U14 Nationals.