Thousands take part in brutal ‘medieval football’ clash that sees players battered
Thousands of people turned up to take part in the annual Atherstone Ball Game – a brutal medieval football clash.
The two-hour long contest is a Shrove Tuesday tradition which dates back to 1199, when the counties of Leicestershire and Warwickshire competed to claim possession of a bag of gold. The aim of the game is to be holding the ball come the final whistle.
This afternoon (February 21) saw the 823rd edition held in the Warwickshire market town, with only one year missed since it’s inception – 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Rules are few and far between, although it goes without saying that you’re not allowed to kill anyone. The action has also been restricted to Long Street since the 1970s, before which the whole town was in play.
After the ball, which was dedicated to King Charles ahead of his coronation this May, was signed by some of the competitors, former champion Gaz Jackson got the game underway by throwing it from the upstairs balcony of the Conservative Club at 3pm.
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(Image: PA)
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(Image: Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)
It was very much no holds barred from the male-heavy crowd who swarmed to get a touch of the ball. One man quickly emerged with a massive black eye suffered in the melee.
But they all had to stop for a break in play which allowed the many children in attendance to get involved, with it being a family affair.
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(Image: Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)
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(Image: Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)
After that it was back to all out war, with the game concluding near the William Hill bookies at 5pm. Once the bodies had filtered away, there was not one, not two, but three winners declared with the title being decided on who has possession of the ball when the final whistle is blown.
Scott Wright, Lewis Cooper and Kieran Marshall told the Birmingham Mail: “It’s a group of us, all mates from Atherstone and we all want to win it. If we win it again next year, we’ll let all the lads take it until we all got one.”
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(Image: PA)
Organisers had issued a warning ahead of the event to discourage people to drink alcohol beforehand. In recent years there have been several incidents.
Back in 2020 the ball game was forced to end early after a steward suffered a cardiac arrest, while in a 2019 a man was claimed to have lost an ear – though no official record of such injury was made.
It’s one of just three medieval games still going, alongside the Royal Shrovetide Football game in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, and Scoring the Hales in the Northumberland town of Alnwick.
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