Wessex have always been a strong supporter of the annual Jesters Tour to Edinburgh. Now being run by 2 Wessex ‘old boys’ Ben Hale and Dave Butler the tour goes from strength to strength. Watch the highlights from this year’s tour below…..
Video Highlights of WFA vs RFA 2019
The 2019 match between the Rugby Fives Association and the Winchester Fives Association was the closest so far in this series of 9 matches. A 7 point win sees the RFA take a 5-4 lead
RFA claim victory in closest contest yet
With frequently changing lineups for both teams in the week leading up to the match there was some nervousness on both sides as to whether we would have 8 players in each team. As it turned out the WFA ended up with 9! We had a great match and the closest game in this series of WFA vs RFA matches that we have ever had with the RFA now leading the contest 5 matches to 4. In the end it came down to just 7 points and all the ‘What if’s’ and ‘If onlys’ that come with a game like that we mentioned in the post match chat at the Queen. Ollie and Ben played the game like they were playing with a golf ball whilst Dan and Howard battled against Giles and Tom for a 16-15, 15-16 scorecard! Thanks to all the last minute replacements who made this fixture and who all played such important parts in the day.
Narrow loss for Wessex vs Marlborough Ist IV
Wessex fell to a narrow loss against the Marlborough 1st IV last week. Thanks to Bill, Rupert, Andy and Martin for playing a Thursday afternoon against the boys, looks like a good match. Just now looking for the singles scores…..
New Season
Good opening night to the new season last night with a few new faces, but a serious omission by HFA meant that no sausages had been ordered. He has just one job to do……. Anyway, as you can see initiative was used to good effect. Hopefully see more of you there next week.
New Fives Season
The first night of the Wessex 2019-2020 fives season will be on the 17th September. We will then play every Tuesday (bar a Christmas break) till the Letchworth Bowl which is normally at the end of April. Club evening normally start around 1830 and we play till about 2145 following which we have drinks and sausages in the Wykeham Arms. Please come and join us!
Letchworth Bowl Winners
Tuesday 30th April saw our traditional end of season tournament being played for the Letchworth Bowl. Last year’s winner Giles Munn was paired this year with Wendy Carling and having won all their group games came up against Ben Chua and Dan Thompson in the final. For Dan this was only his 5th time playing fives…. which was 4 times more than Giles’ partner Chris Jack had played when they won it last year! A good final was won by Giles and Wendy 11-6 and so Giles joins a select group of players in having retained the Letchworth Bowl. Previous back to back winners are Frank Akerman (1985/ 86), Tony Letchworth (1989/ 90), Tony Wolstenholme (1995/ 96)…. and a bloke called Will Ellison (2007/ 8). Giles still has some way to go before he finds himself on the hall of fame below!
Previous 4 time winnners Nigel Cox- 1978, 1980, 1984, 1990, Tony Letchworth- 1981, 1983, 1989, 1990, Tony Wolstenholme- 1988, 1995, 1996, 2005
Biggest gap between wins…. Jamie Orchard, 1985 and 2011
Oldest winner…. Bev Boag 2017… 70 something!
Youngest winners- Pete Kullavanijaya and Alex Younger 15 year olds paired together
First Lady Winner- Wendy Carling 2019
Giles Munn and Wendy Carling celebrating their 2019 victory. You have a year to clean the cup Giles!!
Grand Master Champions!
It should probably come as no surprise that when it comes to having strong fives players in their ‘latter years’ Wessex is going to be strong…. and so it seems! We are proud to have the first ever ‘Grand Master’ national champions! Well done Bev and well done Bernard! Below is some words written by Bernard….
‘The Grand Masters: The establishment of the Masters by David Bawtree in 2003 inevitably nurtured the ambition that there might be another tournament lurking in the RFA gerontocracy. The date of inception was clearly a critical trade-off between sufficient numbers on the one hand and creeping mortality on the other! Deeming the moment to be right, Bernard Atkinson launched the new tournament, and so two pairs of players in late middle age were able to prove that there is probably life after death, with a contest of three games to 11. In the end all four players were still standing and a red line had been crossed and a serious point proved. The new trophy will be engraved with the names of Bernard Atkinson & Bev Boag, while Chris Horrocks and his partner David Neal can bask in the pride of having not only participated in the making of history, but giving the winners some nervous moments on the way.
Match vs Winchester College
Thanks to Bill, Rupert, Toby, and Lucas for playing against the Winchester College 1st IV on Saturday. In beautiful Spring conditions the match was a close affair with Wessex loosing the doubles by just 10 points. In a desperate attempt to close the gap the non playing Wessex Manager suggested that singles was a good idea- our team who had given everything on court during the doubles were all ‘delighted’ to run around against opponents 1/2 (or even 1/3!) their age and despite their best efforts sadly we lost the singles as well. Thanks to Jamie and the College boys for such an enjoyable fixture.
