Atherstone Ball Game

quote:

---

The Atherstone Ball Game is a "medieval football" game played annually on Shrove Tuesday in the English town of Atherstone, Warwickshire. The game honours a match played between Leicestershire and Warwickshire in 1199, when teams competed for a bag of gold, and which was won by Warwickshire. At one time similar events were held in many towns throughout England, but Atherstone's is now one of only three such games that are still played each year at Shrovetide, the others being the Royal Shrovetide Football match held in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, and The Alnwick Shrovetide Football Match in Alnwick, Northumberland.[1]

---

quote:

---

The game is an annual event played in Atherstone each Shrove Tuesday. Shops in the town are boarded up in preparation for its staging, while local children are allowed to leave school early on that day.[2] The two-hour game is played in the town's main street, Long Street, and sees groups of players compete for possession of a giant ball that is specially made for the occasion. The match is usually started at 3:00 pm on Shrove Tuesday by a celebrity guest, usually someone associated with the area, who is invited to throw the ball from the upstairs of a building on Long Street.

---

quote:

---

The game itself has few rules, two being that play is restricted to Long Street and participants are not allowed to kill anyone. The winner is declared at 5:00 pm, the title going to the person who has possession of the ball when the whistle sounds.

---