Photos of Royal Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne

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>Royal Shrovetide Football - Ashbourne, Derbyshire.

Here are some photos taken by our editor Todd O'Neill when he took part in the 2002 Royal Shrovetide Football event in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, UK.

Note from Todd: "Sorry for the unusual angle on some of these photos but since I'm a little guy I had to hold the camera over the top of my head and point it in the general vicinity of the action. I wouldn't recommend taking a camera into that sort of environment unless you expect it to be crushed beyond the point of recognition."

Photos of Royal Shrovetide football from a players perspective

	12:30 p.m. in Ashbourne
	Ashbourne in Derbyshire, ahhh... what a nice little town, and so quiet too. Nice people, a good selection of shops, lovely architecture, my mum would love it here!

	12:35 p.m. Shops are boarded up
	Hmmmm... it looks like the shops have prepared for some serious action. Wooden barriers and planks have been erected to protect the buildings throughout the town centre.

	12:40 p.m. Grogans Pub with some Down'ards
	The game starts at 2:00 so I popped into the Pub for some Guinness where I met Pete Halls (left) and Karl Webster (right). Since this was my first Shrovetide Football match they gave me a good few tips on how to survive. To view the tips section click here. They said they (the Down'ards) were undermanned and lost yesterdays game so I offered what support I could give.

	1:45 p.m. walk to Shaw Croft Car park for the start
	When I saw the size of some of the guys that were going to be taking part in the game I started to fill my pants. Little voices in my head started telling me that I was going to be hurt. Luckily this guy was on our team.

	1:55 p.m. The Town Mayor arrives
	The Mayor has the honour to throw the ball in to start the game (throwing the ball in is called 'Turned up'). In the 1920's this privilege was given to the 'Prince of Wales' hence the 'Royal Shrovetide' name. The Mayor gave a very brief speech and politely asked if we could try not to destroy peoples gardens and other property as this could have an effect on future games - fair enough.

	2:00 p.m. the ball is 'Turned up'
	As per tradition players (i.e. The Uppard's and the Down'ards) and the loads of spectators sing 'Auld Lang Syne' followed by 'God save the Queen'. The leather ball is then 'Turned up' (i.e. throun-in) by the Mayor and the game begins.

	Down'ards head towards Clifton
	Things start to get a bit wild now. The ball spends a bit of time in the air but mostly it gets held in 'the Hug'. The hug is sort of like a rugby scrum, but its basically a big group of Uppard's pushing against a big group of Down'ards with the ball being held by guys somewhere in the middle of the pack. Its very VERY physical!

	Extreme pushing
	The pushing gets a lot more intense the closer you get to the ball. Basically you push as hard as you can to get the Hug moving towards the goal (which for me was in Clifton 1.5 miles away). Since there are a load of your team mates pushing you as well, you'll need to protect your ribs (or they will probably fracture) to allow you to breathe.

	Close to the action
	The closer you get to the ball the more intense the action becomes. The pushing is incredibly forceful and there will be prolonged periods where you will not be able to inhale due to the crushing.

	Ground zero
	I'm not sure if it were good luck or bad luck but the ball headed my way and for a few brief moments I managed to get my arms on the ball. Since there were about 4 other pairs of arms on it at the time, pulling the ball was like trying to pull a firmly rooted tree stump from the ground with your bare hands. It really does drain the energy from your arms.

	Obstacles: the vehicles and buildings...
	The game has the right of way and stops all traffic. At one point the ball was passed under a stationary truck (the guys on the left of the photo are on top of the flatbed trailer). Although the retail shops had wooden planks for protection, glass was still a factor. If play moved too close to a window, both sides would yell 'GLASS' and the play would move away from the potential hazzard. Cool.

	Obstacle: the walls, trees, rivers...
	Here the ball was moved over a wall which was a hell of a struggle (that's not fog in the photo - it's steam from the players bodies). It is not uncommon for the game to be moved into the trees, through narrow alleyways or into the river.

	Smell-a-vision
	Whoa! Talk about sweat. When the play moved into the confined streets we managed to redline the stinkometer a few times. Not nice.


Special thanks to those at Olympus Camera. Our C-100 digital camera survived yet another damn good hammering . Cheers.
See more of our Royal Shrovetide Football photos here >