Written by After the recent rants of previous weeks about Olympic tickets and FIFA corruption, I thought it was time to take a step back and return to some on-field violence. This relates somewhat to the Hardest Sportsman Rankings but only peripherally. Today we’re going to check out Mob Football.
Although a small country, it is well known that the British invented everything. Some poetic license there of course but we did invent all the good stuff. Football for example, variations of which have been played for around 1000 years – the original rules finally being set down in 1848 at Cambridge University.
However we do also like to hold on to sense of tradition and so many of the earlier variations of games we partake in now are still played around the country, usually on specific days of the year. There’s a lengthy list of bizarre, violent and dangerous sports on show, mostly on holiday dates. Cheese Rolling is a good example and one we will return to in a later article.
Mob Football, also known by its players as Shrovetide Football is what we’re going to examine today. This game is at least 800 years old and is local to the Derbyshire Town of Ashbourne. Probably the most telling rule of the game is that murder is not allowed, nor is unnecessary violence. Some violence is of course necessary. It’s played on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.
A ball is involved and the idea of the game is that the Up’Ards (residents from North of the Henmore Brook) battle the Down’Ards (from South of the Brook). A ball is involved and the game starts from the centre of town. The Up’Ards try to get the ball to the site of Sturston Mill and the Down’Ards try to get the ball to Clifton Mill. Hundreds of people can be involved, many tourists, but the team which wins is the one which nominates a locally born or known player who then taps the ball three times against the goal ‘wall’.
It’s a two day affair and the game kicks off at 2pm and can continue until 10pm. If a goal is scored before 5pm the game is restarted. Citizens of Ashbourne know how to prepare these days – shops are boarded up and cars re4moved from the streets to avoid collateral damage. Here’s a few videos of the mayhem:
