Alumnus Sunil Tailor (1999-2006) has been nominated for the Eton Fives Player of the Year award, following an outstanding season.
Sunil, who first played the sport at QE, became the first old boy ever to reach the quarter-finals of the sport’s national senior championships, the Kinnaird Cup with Old Millhillian Joe Coakley.
Sunil’s nomination for the prestigious award is attributed partly to his success at the nationals, and also to the rise of the Old Millhillian Fives club in the last two or three years. Sunil is described as a key player at the club, which has quickly established itself with teams in both the 1st and 2nd divisions.
The winner of the award will be chosen by Eton Fives Association (EFA) members through an online ballot and will be announced at the EFA’s annual dinner in May. Members of the EFA can vote at www.fivesonline.net.
“I was delighted to learn that I had been nominated; it’s a very satisfying end to the season,” said Sunil. “I’m particularly to encourage people to become involved in the sport and hope, one day, that it might be possible to establish a Fives club for QE alumni.”
Sunil is training to be a chartered accountant and is a part-qualified ACA trainee with accountancy firm MHA MacIntyre Hudson LLP. He is due to sit his advanced stage examinations in July 2012.
The first Fives courts at Queen Elizabeth’s School opened at the old Wood Street premises in 1880, following a £10 grant from the Governors and a special fund-raising concert. The sport languished for some years after the move to Queen’s Road in 1932 and it was not until the post-war rebuilding programme in 1951-52 that plans for a new court were considered. By 1954, the court was complete and the following year the School was affiliated to the Eton Fives Association and entered the Public Schools Championships.