EXERCISE ON WINTER EVENINGS.
[To TUE EDLTOR OF THE "SPEOTATOR."] Sin,—At a political club in this neighbourhood there has recently been built an Eton fives-court, which has proved so successful that a short account may be useful to those of your readers who take an interest in clubs for young men. Around Liverpool, as elsewhere, many clubs enable their members to play billiards, a few have a bowling-green, but hardly any appeal to that numerous class who both in winter and summer crave for exercise after the ordinary work of the day is done. There are two varieties of fives, Eton and Rugby, and they are as distinct as Rugby and Association football. The Rugby game of fives gives the maximum of exercise in the minimum of time ; the Eton game requires mere skill and less ,igenr. The courts Tary in size and detail, but in each case are as large as a billiard-room and higher at one end. Although fives is hardly played except at the public schools snd Universities, it is a fascinating pastime for middle age as well as youth, and — differing from racquets— it is essentially a poor man's game. Our court, in- cluding brick walls cemented and painted, glass roof, electric main and fittings, cost £200. Maintenance will be limited to an occasional coat of paint, and the cost of lighting and renewal of lamps. The chief item is the light- ing. It might be done very cheaply with incandescent gas if a little care were given to ventilation. With electric light it requires one unit an hour, 6d. in our case. A ball costs 3d., and will last half-an-hour, or even longer. An hour and a half is a long enough game for those who have been at a desk all day, and will cost, apart from rent, the four players is. 6d., or did. a head, a price well within the reach of thousands who in no other way can get sociable and vigorous exercise on winter evenings. On Saturday afternoons, as long as the daylight lasts, the cost of a game is limited to that of the balls used. Will any gentleman who reads this and may be thinking of founding a political club or village institute bear in mind that there is an alternative to a:billiard-room P—I
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