Newbury Fives gets underway at St Bart's

Natalie Lilienthal reports:

29/09/26: A Fives taster event was held for the new Year 7 pupils at St Bartholomew's School in Newbury on Saturday 26th September.

The Newbury Club were still playing when we arrived which served as a great showcase of Fives for the new arrivals. Students and parents alike took to the courts to try their hands at our marvellous sport. Nine new recruits got on court to learn the basic techniques, and via a series of rally challenges and fun games, ended up playing simple rules Fives with low-compression tennis balls. They are now ready to join the school's weekly Fives sessions to get practising with gloves and Fives balls.

M-i-C John Talbot recruited the players, Matt Beard organised a strong support crew, David Cooper and Fives Captain Raff brought the enthusiasm across the generations, and the EFA's Development Manager Natalie was on hand for coaching support.

The parents' court had a whale of a time with Matt's challenges for them while the kids' courts supervised by Raf and Natalie were all displaying real skill by the end of the session. Both generations were having such a good time that they stayed on longer than expected and long enough that we managed to start up an extra court of additional new players in a range of non-traditional sporting footwear before we wrapped things up.

We hope to see many of the new players back on court soon!

Thanks to Jon Talbot, Matt Beard and David Cooper for making this happen.