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Britain's maddest football match Royal Shrovetide Football
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by JeffHuang | February 26, 2009 at 09:40 am
775 views | 5 Recommendations | 5 comments
The game of soccer is usually played with eleven a side, but every year during Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, the rural town of Ashbourne, Derbyshire splits its' townspeople into two teams - the Up'ards and Down'ards to partake in a massive 2000 to 3000 player football match.
Royal Shrovetide Football dates back to at least the 17th century with those born north of the Henmore River on the Up'ards team and the people born south of the river on the Down'ards team.
The rules are simple, no killing, no hiding the ball, and stay out of the churchyard. The ball went through a pub this time around which demonstrates why shopkeepers often board up their windows to protect against the mayhem.
The game begins at 2:00pm with the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" and "God Save the Queen". If the ball is not goaled by 10:00pm, the game ends.
"There's an honour to playing this game. People train from Christmas to get ready. It's the heritage of Derbyshire. We have to fight all the time to keep it going.
"It makes you proud to be British."
The specially-painted ball, made of leather and stuffed with cork to keep it afloat, is rarely kicked and is mostly held in the hug. The ball is "turned-up" -- hurled into the crowd -- to start the game.
Anyone who "goals" the ball -- by tapping the ball three times on their team's millstone -- gets to keep it, and is carried shoulder-high into the Green Man pub.
Goaling is "every man's dream," explained Green Man barmaid Steph.
Shops board up their windows for protection and paramedics are on standby.
Some believe that the game has been played since the 12th century, but the exact origins are still unknown due to a fire in the 1890s at the Royal Shrovetide Committee office that wiped out early records. A popular theory suggests that the game originated from the tossing of a severed head into the crowd after an execution.
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JeffHuang
Berkeley, California, United States
ec1jack
London, United KingdomChris Hills
United Kingdomtcneal
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 10:15 on February 26th, 2009
What an agreeable post this is. A pleasure to read. Makes a great change from all the serious stuff people (me included lol!) put up.
I am seriously addicted to those wonderful posts that talk about totally inconsequential and blissfully charming things and events such as this.
Thanks for putting it up Jeff!!
at 10:22 on February 26th, 2009
Thanks Fripouille for your comment! Glad you enjoyed the post.
at 10:52 on February 26th, 2009
In fact, this sport is much more similar to what rugby was at the beginning than it is to football. This useful site explains that various early ball games were played during the middle ages...
at 10:20 on February 26th, 2009
It looks so chaotic judging by the video. I think the density of players per square foot is too high to play football. But I would love to watch it. Great find.
at 14:12 on February 26th, 2009
I went to the Shrove Tuesday game. It was well worth the trip. There is a brief story I did at
http://www.biffadigital.org/2009/02/shrove-tuesday-2009.html
it's got some shoddy video of running up the street to follow the game. This is the most well known of the Shrovetide Football - the ones in Atherstone, Alnwick and Workington are lesser known.