Fives

FAQs

• How do you play the game fives?
  You sit in a group, elbows on the table, fists in the air. You take in in turns to go, clockwise. As you say the number, everyone can either keep one or both of their fists closed, or spread their five fingers out (i.e each hand either counts as zero or five).
• What is the difference between handball and fives?
  Handball in Ireland is basically a working class sport. But in England fives is typically a sport of the upper class since it is only played at the elite private boarding schools as well as Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
• How do you play fives with your hands?
  With a group of people sit in a circle. Outstretch both your arms and make a fist with both hands. The first person will go and guess how many fingers will be held up in multiples of 5 (each person must either leave a fist, throw out one or both hands). These two actions are done simultaneously.
• Where did the game of fives originate?
  Rugby Fives is said to owe its creation to the Headmaster Thomas Arnold who had first played Fives when a pupil at Lord Weymouth School, now Warminster School.