Dale Vargas writes:
Terry Shaw, for many years a stalwart of the Old Harrovians Eton Fives Club, has died aged 77.
Terry was born in Willesden, the son of a Daily Express newspaper correspondent, but grew up and was schooled on Harrow Hill, first at Orley Farm then at Harrow School. His House Master was George McConnell, a former Kinnaird Cup winner with Kenneth Gandar Dower, and Rendalls was a nursery for many of Harrow’s fives players of that era. Terry was a talented modern linguist and a keen, competent games player, particularly cricket and fives.
In 1957 Terry went up to St John’s College, Cambridge to read law and it was there that he developed his love of mountains and climbing with the University Alpine Club. On coming down from Cambridge he trained as a barrister but soon found it not to his liking and became a journalist. He later became the legal correspondent of the Daily Telegraph.
In 1967 he married Esther, who on their honeymoon was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In spite of the deterioration in her health, their son Nicholas was born in 1976. To his father’s great delight, Nicholas was to become a winner of the N/national Schools Eton Fives Championships in 1994 and later to captain Cambridge.
For many years Terry played cricket for The Hill CC, usually keeping wicket, and fives for the Old Harrovians, where spectators and players marveled at the size of his calf muscles, swelled by many a mountain climb. He was also a keen participant in après sport at The Castle where he was a connoisseur of Fuller’s ales. Terry was a charming, kind man of compassionate nature, who will be much missed by his family and many friends.
Terry (front row, far right) in possibly his last ever appearance on a Fives court in Grillon in 2007.