Rugby Fives

Rugby Fives is a handball game, similar to squash, played in an enclosed court. It has similarities with Eton Fives, another type of Fives.

The game is played as singles or doubles, the aim being to hit the ball above a "bar" across the front wall in such a way as the opposition cannot return it before a second bounce. Unlike Eton Fives, the court has a back wall. The dimensions of the court are 28 feet long and 18 feet wide. The ball is slightly larger than a golf ball, leather-coated and hard. Players wear leather padded gloves on both hands, with which they hit the ball. The court is slightly smaller than a squash court and the floor is concrete so that the ball will bounce.

How to play

Either singles or doubles can be played. In both singles and doubles only the receiver can score. In singles, if you win the rally (the ball can't bounce twice or hit the 'bar') then you either score a point (when you are receiving) or you then receive the other player's serve and are in a position to score points. Games are played either to 11 or 15, normally agreed before the game commences. If the score is 10-10 then you play to 12 but no further (unlike in tennis where you have to win by 2 points in a tie-break).

The serve

The serve follows the following rules: The server throws the ball so that it hits the front wall then clips the side, then, after it has bounced, he/she hits the ball so that it hits the side wall and then the front wall. If on the hit part of the serve the ball hits the front wall first, the receiver has the option to take it, as long as he/she says 'yes' before striking the ball. This is called a 'blackguard' (pronounced 'blaggard').

Scoring

Points are scored from receiving the serve in Rugby fives, as well as in Winchester fives. Usually a 50-50 chance scenario is adopted at the start (e.g. one player puts the ball behind their back and their opponent guesses which hand it's in). In doubles, it is slightly more complicated: player one receives first, and continues to receive as his pair wins points. However, when they lose a point, his partner will receive, and if they lose again, the two pairs will switch so that the first pair is now serving. Meanwhile, if the serving pair loses a point, an actual point is scored for the opposition, and the other player in the (serving) pair serves next. The receiver's score is said first in doubles and singles, so if the receivers have 10 points, and the servers have 5, the score is 10-5. Zero is said as 'love'.At the start of a game of doubles, the servers only need to win one rally in order to switch so that they are receiving (for the rest of the game the usual two before switching applies). [http://www.rfa.org.uk/files/RFA_rules.pdf]

Tournaments

Men

The asterisk indicates that these tournaments have qualification rounds to play in the main knockout. The top 4 players in the singles rankings automatically qualify for singles tournaments, and the similarly the top 4 doubles pairs qualify automatically.

The Rugby Fives Association (RFA)

The RFA is the governing body for the sport of Rugby Fives. The association aims to promote the playing and coaching of Fives at schools, universities and senior level, and throughout the community in general. It does this by organising matches and tournaments throughout the season and advising on – and wherever possible supporting financially – the regeneration of facilities and provision of suitable coaching and equipment to further the game's development across the country. [ cite web | url=http://www.rfa.org.uk/about.html | title=The RFA Website | accessdate = 2008-03-21]

Rankings

The RFA publishes rankings on its website based on tournament results for both doubles and singles. The current top 10 for both are shown below, where change icons reflect change since the last rankings update [ cite web | url=http://www.rfa.org.uk/rankings.html | title=The RFA Website - Rankings | accessdate = 2008-09-04] :

National singles and doubles champions

The current national singles champion is Hamish Buchanan [ cite web | url=http://www.rfa.org.uk/news/index.html#Dec05a | title=The RFA Website - News | accessdate = 2008-03-21] , and national doubles champions are Hamish Buchanan and Robin Perry (holding for the fifth consecutive year) [ cite web | url=http://www.rfa.org.uk/news/index.html#Mar30 | title=The RFA Website - News | accessdate = 2008-03-31] .

External links

* [http://www.rfa.org.uk/ Rugby Fives Association (UK)] - Includes information on where Rugby Fives can be played.

References