By Tom Bell
“If you thought running the pitch when your favourite team won a trophy was the closest you’d get to the action, the Royal Shrovetide Football Match is perhaps a step too far for you. “
A damning title or a fair assessment of an age-long heritage in Ashbourne? We could ballpark about the pros and cons of the sport, what constitutes violence and assault in a partisan, law-abiding society, or go even grander with a rigorous debate on the lust for war that’s seemingly built into a monopolising, endlessly competing human race (no comment on our overseas allies…)
But, we’d be giving an unfair reading.
Rugby sees men clatter into each other, with broken bones and bloody noses being a reasonable fare for the game. Sure, football may have gotten a little soft glove since the days of Vinnie Jones and Jaap Stam, yet boxing and UFC still claim incredible viewership, and for the latter, we see two people battering seven bells out of each other, albeit with high levels of skill and athleticism.
And this is where the line is drawn. Highly qualified individuals, even way back to the gladiator days when seasoned warriors took to each other with sword and shield, are the ones who compete, while the rest of us stand by as celebrating spectators.
If you thought running the pitch when your favourite team won a trophy was the closest you’d get to the action, the Royal Shrovetide Football Match is perhaps a step too far for you.
Dare you even learn more? Of course,
you want to!
Totalling just one of fifteen festival football games that are still being played in Britain, the Shrovetide Football match remains a steadfast part of Ashbourne and national interest. Unfortunately, if you are an Ashbourne resident, don’t even think that you can get past the event. Most roads are shut, and congestion from visitors and residents will ensue.
It’s estimated that the game started around the 12th Century, and has traditionally been played on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday every year since 1667. Since then, not much has changed in terms of how the game is played, and who the players are.
Defined as the Up’ards and the Down’ards, the boundary is split between those south of Scolebrook and north of Henmore Brook. The game is started in the Shaw Croft car park, wherein the ball is thrown from a turn-up plinth.
The game begins!
The game is played throughout the streets, alleyways and everywhere else including the park pond and the surrounding fields. The aim is to try and score as many goals as possible, and each respective goal is gleaned at Sturston Mill for the Up’ards and the Clifton Mill for the Down’ards.
Separating them is 3 miles of everything urban and natural in Ashbourne. Back in the day, the goals were scored by entering either wheelhouse and tapping the ball 3 times against the mill wheel.
In the words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a changin, and so has the scoring system for the Royal Shrovetide Ashbourne Football. Since the mills are no longer in operation and have long since been demolished, the way to score is by tapping the ball exactly 3 times, directly in the centre of the purpose-built stone millstones. This is all to be done by a player standing in the river.
Scoring systems and standing in rivers? Ripping Bob Dylan lyrics quicker than a Rolling Stone? We hope your mind isn’t Tangled Up In Blue!
The physical playing of the game is not too difficult to do. Therefore, anyone from all experiences and skills-sets will easily pick up the gameplay. You will very rarely see the ball kicked, yet players are allowed to do so, alongside carrying and throwing it.
Don’t expect to be an individual dynamo like Messi in this contest. You simply will not have the space! Most of the time, you will be locked into “hugs” with your own teammates and the opposite, and you will sway to-and-fro, washing towards each millstone as the ball makes it’s way over sweaty heads.
You’ve cut through the masses, broken the lines and thrown yourself and the ball against the millstone. You’ve scored! Something quite strange may happen, but it’s not an instance of you being kidnapped in broad daylight. Tradition shows that the scorer is carried on their teammates shoulders, back towards the courtyard of the Green Man Royal Hotel.
For the ball itself, this is not your standard accompaniment that you’ll bring to a kickabout. Instead, you will be enjoying this “beautiful game” with a ball that’s larger than your normal Nikey. Named a “Shrovetide Football’, the ball is filled with Portuguese cork in order to allow it to float in rivers. Hand-painted by professional local craftsmen, the balls are typically decorated with emblems and themes specific to the dignitary that will be first presenting it at kickoff.
Usually, the ball will be given to the scorer, and it will be repainted and designed to suit their aesthetics. Plus they can keep it as a souvenir. Seems like scoring a hard-earned goal isn’t the only treat for braying players…
Starting at 2:00 pm and playing until 10:00 pm, the game may last 2 days, but it is likely not a spectacle to forget. Usually, if a goal is scored before 6:00 pm, a fresh ball is released into the town centre and the game continues. But, if a goal is scored after 6 pm, the match is wrapped up for the day, hands are shaken and a few post-game drinks are supped.
Anyone who’s anybody has been involved in the festivities, including King Charles through to Brian Clough and the Duke of Devonshire. They weren’t explicitly involved in the scrummage, but they kicked things off by playing the role of the “turner up”, and threw the ball from a plinth into the hoarded masses.
Luckily, rules are rules, even when things get a little tense during the match.
Some of the main ones include the prohibition of murder and manslaughter (good to know), yet uncalled violence is given an angry finger wag. Furthermore, you are not allowed to carry the ball in a motorised vehicle, nor hide it within anything under any circumstance.
Strangely, it’s “forbidden” for the playing to continue after 10pm, and you absolutely cannot engage in gameplay within the memorial gardens, churchyards or cemeteries. Priorities, people. Only save the hard laws for game time, not fistfights!
To get involved, simply arrive in Ashbourne on March 4th and 5th 2025 (during Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday) to find the action. Considering the game has been played every year since 1667, we can only assume that nothing will delay this spectacular event.
If you want to sound like a proper fan and enjoy all the pregame antics, one of the best ways to indulge in the event is getting down to the Green Man & Black’s Head Royal Hotel over lunchtime to join in with the Shrovetide anthem.
See you there!
