The Atherstone Ball Game has one main rule: don’t kill anybody. It’s a rule that goes
without saying in most sports, but in this case, you can see why it’s probably necessary
to have it in there somewhere.
The game kicked off in 1199. On Shrove Tuesday of that year two teams – one from Leicestershire
and one from Warwickshire – competed over a period of several hours, and across several
miles of countryside, to seize control of a bag of gold.
Even at a time when violence was part and parcel of everyday life in England, the so-called
‘Match of Gold’ was notable for its brutality; there were no referees and, with local pride
at stake as well as the gold itself, gouging, bludgeoning and bone-breaking were the order
of the day. There might even have been a bit of football in there too.
The game’s origins can be traced even further back than the 12th century though – Medieval
football, or ‘Mob football’ as it is sometimes known – has antecedents in similar games
played in the ancient world. And going forwards in time, the evolution of Medieval football
can be tracked through various diverging branches, including Gaelic football, Rugby and, of
course, Association football.
Warwickshire won the 1199 Match of Gold and, for the following 820 years, an annual game
has taken place every Shrove Tuesday in the county’s market town of Atherstone to mark
the event. While many other similar ‘Shrovetide’ games have come and gone across England over
the centuries, the Atherstone Ball Game is still going strong.
Wars, social upheaval and the foot-and-mouth crisis of 2001 have all failed to cause a
break in its bloody 820-year streak. The Highways Act of 1895 was introduced in part to put
a stop to ball games being played in public streets – the locals in Atherstone didn’t
seem to pay it any heed however.
It has become such a part of local identity that one former Mayor has said “The ball
game is Atherstone – without it there is not a town.”
For many locals, the game is the highlight of the year – something they look forward
to, train for and take immense pride in. It is a connection with the past and – despite
its adversarial nature – it brings the whole town together, even if that does mean many
of them battering the living daylights out of each other.
There have, over the years, been a few changes to how the game is played, including the addition
of the ‘no killing’ rule. Instead of a bag of gold, a large leather ball is used
nowadays. Because of the damage it sustains during the match – not to mention the blood
stains it usually endsup being spattered with – a new ball is custom-made each year.
Perhaps the biggest change to the game since its early Medieval incarnation is that play
is restricted to Atherstone’s Long Street, in an attempt to prevent the ball being thrown
or kicked into the nearby Coventry Canal.
The modern game begins at 3pm, with the ball being thrown from an upper window of Barclays
Bank on Long Street. In recent times the person who throws out the ball has been a specially
invited guest of honour; in 2019 it was former Aston Villa manager Brian Little.
The game lasts for two hours. In its early stages it is relatively sedate, with the ball
being lofted up and down the street by players, including children. There are also side games,
like prizes for getting hold of one of the ribbons attached to the ball at the beginning
of play.
But as the game heats up, it turns into a no-holds-barred mass brawl. After about an
hour, factions start to form, with different groups duking it out for possession of the
ball. Players – who number in their hundreds – throw punches, kicks and elbows, and use
the boarded-up shop windows as launch pads for flying tackles and surprise attacks.
The local police look on in bemusement as the norms of the twenty-first century are
momentarily put on hiatus in the name of something more primal, brutal and chaotic.
In its final minutes the game reaches fever pitch as the team in possession desperately
battles to cling on, while their riled-up opponents do their best to prise the ball
out of the scrum.
And then, when the whistle blows at 5 o’clock, it’s all over. Whoever is in possession
of the ball wins. The crowds disperse, the shops are reopened and the blood is washed
from the pavement.
The winner in 2019 was – for the fourth time – local lad Jonathan Slesser. Over
a pint of lager afterwards he summed up the violent simplicity of both the Atherstone
Ball Game and man’s very existence, telling a reporter: “It’s the ball game, innit.
It’s what we’re here for.”