Ashbourne Ball Game
Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday

The Shrove Tuesday Ball Game at Ashbourne is one of the most famous ball games, though there are others which claim a longer history, such as the one at Atherstone in Warwickshire. The Ashbourne game takes place between the Up'ards and Down'ards and starts at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, when a specially prepared ball - slightly larger than a football and filled with cork - is thrown in by a visiting guest of honour. The goals are two mills some three miles apart, and the ball may be kicked, carried or thrown, but generally proceeds in a series of 'hugs' invisible to the spectator. Often the ball is fought for in the stream which runs through the pitch, and the game can last for many hours, finishing after dark.

It was first recorded in 1682, though thought to be much older, and various attempts were made to suppress it over the years. In 1891, it is said, the police attempted to prevent the game from
being started at all, but the ball was smuggled in under the skirts of a woman. It has continued unabated ever since, and by 1928 it had become so respectable that the then Prince of Wales was invited to start the game.

Other Shrove Tuesday games take place at Atherstone in Warwickshire (as mentioned above); Jedburgh, Roxburghshire; Sedgfield, Co Durham; also at Alnwick, Northumberland, where the ball is piped into the field of play by the Duke of Northumberland's piper. Other than at Shrovetide, there are ball games at Workington in Cumberland on Good Friday, Easter Tuesday and the following Saturday, and the Kirkwall Ba' Game, Orkney on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Forty Shilling Day
Wotton, near Dorking, Surrey
2 February, though subject to alteration

Five clever and intrepid boys under the age of sixteen who are willing to brave the weather of a cold churchyard at Wotton in February, and who have retentive memories, can earn themselves 40 shillings each under the terms of William Glanville's will. To do so, they have to stand with both hands on his tombstone, recite the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed and the Ten Commandments. Next, they have to read aloud the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians, and follow this by writing two verses of the Epistle in a clear and legible hand.

In 1717, when William Glanville made his will, 40 shillings was a considerable sum of money, but by choosing to die on 2 February (the date of his death being the day on which the commemorative service was to take place), he made it more difficult for the bequest to be honoured than if he had died in a milder month. The weather has not always been conducive to such an outdoor ceremony: on some occasions it has been postponed and on others a makeshift tent has been erected over the grave. If five boys can't be found from Wotton, neighbouring parishes are entitled to make up the numbers.

Hurling the Silver Ball
St Ives, Cornwall
First Monday after Candlemas (2nd February)

It is the children of St Ives who compete for the silver ball on their patron saints day, and the mayor who starts the gams by throwing the ball into play. This takes place about 10.30 in the morning, after the ball has been traditionally blessed at the saints holy well. The ball, made of wood and covered with silver, about the size of a tennis ball, is fought for on the beach at a place depending on the tide. The winner is the one who has it in his possession at noon, and he is entitled to a small cash prize on returning the ball to the mayor.

This is a genteel survival of a hurling contest that was once general throughout Cornwall, a much rougher adult version taking place to this day at St Columb Major on Shrove Tuesday. St Ia, the patron saint of St Ives, is said to have floated over from Ireland on a leaf, and it would seem that the reason the hurling takes place on her feast day is a contribution to the celebration of her name.

Jedburgh Hand Ba' Game
Jedburgh, Roxburghshire
Fasteneen (Shrove Tuesday)

The Jedburgh Hand Ba' Game is started with the throwing of the ball into the crowd from the Mercat Cross. It is a contest between the Guppies and the Downs, that is between those born north or south of an east-west line through the cross: South is Up and North is Don. Guppies score, or hail, by throwing the ball over the castle wall; Downs by rolling the ball across the Skiprunning Burn. Another way of scoring, though this may be apocryphal, is by cutting the stitching of the ball while it is held ! under water in the River Jed, the Guppies having one stretch, the Downs another. The winners are the side with the most hails scored, and up to fifteen balls have been fought over in the course of a day.

The shops of the town are boarded up for the games, which also used to take place on Candlemas Day, though these have now been abandoned, save for the token throwing of a ball from the Mercat Cross.

Any contest in this part of the border country has its legends, and one is that the ba' game used to be played here with the severed heads of English raiders. In 1704, it had become so violent that the burgh elders put a stop to the kicking of footballs in the streets. The ba' game developed with much smaller balls, made of leather and stuffed with straw and decorated with ribbons. An attempt to stop this new game was made, but overruled in 1848.