Massed Ball Games
Massed Ball Games
Still played on Shrove Tuesday in a few places throughout the British Isles are massed ball games. These are usually held in boarded up main streets (or, in fact, wherever the ball takes the players) with the number of participants unlimited and the rules governing them virtually non-existent.
Royal Ashbourne Shrovetide Football
One of the most famous takes place in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, on the Tuesday and following day if necessary. It has been called ‘royal’ since 1928 when the Prince of Wales threw up the ball to start the game. The ball here is a specially decorated one made of leather filled with cork and painted on one side with a Royal image and on the other with a picture relevant to the celebrity who is to throw it up. This initial throw takes place from a concrete platform in the middle of the car park - car drivers having of course been warned not to park there that day.
What happens is… Before the start the ‘players’ are warned to stay out of the churchyard, Auld Lang Syne and God Save The Queen are sung, and then at 2pm the ball is thrown into the throng, which is made up of Up’ards and Down’ards - those born north and south of Henmore Brook, which runs through the town. The elaborately painted ball is then kicked, carried or thrown towards the goals, which are two spindles from old mill wheels standing three miles apart. The ball travels in a scrimmage called the ‘hug’. The whole thing is something of a free-for-all which is made even more chaotic by the fact that the Brook runs between the goals and the players inevitably find themselves in it. As if the struggle to get there wasn’t enough, when reaching the goal a player has to strike the ball three times against the post before it can be said to be a score. With several hundred people in the ‘hug’, the progress of the ball and final score can take some time, and if no score is made on the Tuesday (they call a halt at 10pm) then the game restarts at the same time on Ash Wednesday. This has been going on since at least the 17th century.
JathartBa’
A boisterous game also occurs in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, on Candlemas Day (2nd February) as well as on Fastern’s Eve (that is to say, the Jedburghers continue to play on the first Tuesday after the new moon following Candlemas, which is their way of naming the day even though often out of step with church dates). Their game is called JathartBa’ and is a handball game played throughout boarded up streets and in the River Jed where, again, few rules apply. Indeed, this game once became so rough and disorderly that lives were nearly lost and it was officially banned. That was in 1704. After a short period it reappeared in an equally vigorous version and there have been further attempts to ban the game in more recent times - but to no avail. The opponents here are called the Uppies and the Doonies, which relates to the place in the town where the participants were born. Local legend says Jathart Ba’ dates from a time when the victorious Scots played football with the severed heads of the English.
Hurling
At St Ives and St Columb in Cornwall they have games of Hurling. The ball here is the size of a cricket ball, made of apple wood, weighs about a pound and is covered in sterling silver. This ball is thrown, hurled and run with, but never kicked. St Column play their game on Shrove Tuesday and the second Saturday following. Here the ball is thrown up in the market place, either by the winner of the previous game or an invited guest, and the hurlers deliberately confine themselves to the shuttered main street in the first hour for a financial reward. After that the Townsmen try to keep the ball going to the Southwest, towards the town, and the Countrymen try to get the ball out of the town to the North. The two goals are stone-troughs two miles apart and the winner is the person finally holding the ball at the one aimed for. That person is then carried shoulder high in triumph to the nearest pub where the ball, which the winner keeps until the next game or has to donate a new one, is submerged in a jug of ale and ‘silver beer’ is drunk by all. In fact, this is done at quite a few pubs after the event. The St. Ives version takes place a day earlier, on Feasten Monday.
An early account of the Cornish game was recorded by Richard Carew in 1602.
Kiplingcotes Derby
On the third Thursday in March is held what is probably the oldest horse race in Britain - the Kiplingcotes Derby. This chase, which starts at noon and is run over a four mile course, takes place at Dalton Hall near Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, and lasts for just over ten minutes.
It was first held in 1519 but did not become an annual event until about a 100 years later, since when the rules have become very strict. They include the stipulations that each rider must be over ten stone in weight - so each rider may have to carry extra weight - and the runner-up receives the gate money, which is usually considerably more than the winner earns. Customs are nothing if not a little perverse ....
Losing' your marbles
Traditionally, the marbles season starts on Ash Wednesday and ends at noon on Good Friday, but the British and World Marbles Championship, held at the Greyhound public house at Tinsley Green, Sussex, doesn’t actually start until 1 lam on the final day. It carries on until the winners are decided, which certainly takes more than an horn!
There are five heats in today’s championships, with teams of six who attempt to be the first to knock twenty- five of the forty-nine marbles out of the special rings located in the grounds and car park of the pub. Following rules laid down by the British Marbles Board of Control, each game starts with the ‘nose drop’, which means that a selected member from each team holds their ‘tolley’ - the shooting marble - beside their nose before dropping it into the ring, and the one whose marble is nearest a set point starts the proceedings.
This page is part of our Beginners’ Guide: British Folk Customs From Plough Monday to Hocktide.
