Atherstone, Warwickshire, England 5th February 2008.
Shrove Tuesday Football committee members gather at the Angel Inn with the signed football before the start of the annual game. The medieval football game has been played since 1199 between teams from Warwickshire and Leicestershire, according to legend the ‘Match of Gold’ was originally a bag of gold, the match has been played ever since.
There are few rules, two being that the game must be...
more »Atherstone, Warwickshire, England 5th February 2008.
Shrove Tuesday Football committee members gather at the Angel Inn with the signed football before the start of the annual game. The medieval football game has been played since 1199 between teams from Warwickshire and Leicestershire, according to legend the ‘Match of Gold’ was originally a bag of gold, the match has been played ever since.
There are few rules, two being that the game must be played in Long Street - the main street through the town and that no one is to be killed. Shops and buildings are boarded up, some local schools give their children the day off. The game starts at 3pm the ball being thrown down from an upstairs window at the ‘Connie’ – the Atherstone Conservative Club.
The winner is the person who is holding the oversized ball when the whistle blows at 5pm. There is often a lot of very rough play, so groups of players often representing a local pub compete for possession of a giant ball over the course of two hours, once they have it, that ‘team’ then tries to retain ‘ownership’ forming a huddle around the ball until the whistle blows.
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