EASTER KEGS

Here is the start of the game of fotbale recorded by Kelly in 1844 where the "feast" or "Easter Ball Play" was held on Easter Tuesday, a game derived for "a great meeting for a trial of skill at football". Certainly any game would not be allowed to be played on the Sabbath!

John Henry Browne, the vicar, in 1792 stated that "no bodey must play at fotbale nor mabels (marbles), no other game of that kind on Sundae." The game declined around the time of the Napoleanic war and seemed to disappear.

There are many other local games of "mob" football held at "religious" times in the UK; Atherstone in Warwickshire, at Hallaton in Leicestershire and the Royal Shrovetide game at Ashbourne, which is recorded as a celebration following a victory over the Romans in Derbyshire.

The Hallaton "bottle kicking" affair takes place on Easter Monday when the poor are given hare pie, bread and ale from the church. There is a match between Hallaton and neighbouring Medbourne where the "mobs" of each village attempt to move three  " bottles" (actually two kegs of beer and an empty one made from wood, painted red and white and shaped like a ball) over two streams over a mile apart. There are three games played, so best of 3.

A local parson once tried to ban the event which he deemed to be "Pagan". Graffiti was scrawled on the church wall "No Pie No Parson", so he stood down and the game continued. Some claim that a local boy took the idea of playing the game with the rugby shaped keg to his university and hence the formation of the game rugby! Hmmm.

Medbourne FC presently play modern football in the Northampton Combination, a 7th Pyramid Level League. Hallaton with a population of 523 (latest census) does not have a team!

Origins of other mob games vary but there is evidence of Anglo-Saxon influences in Kingston Surrey and Chester where a severed Danish warrior head was used as a ball.There is pre-Norman evidence of games being played in Celtic regions, where a pig's bladder might have been used as the ball.

There is a suggestion that the French were playing the game before "us" and that it may have been brought over the Channel during invasions, but we are not spending too much time researching that.

Edward II declared that he was banning mob football because he saw the game "killing" young men of his country at a time when he was raising an army. His men should have been practising archery rather than kicking a bladder. Edward III also saw a similar problem when raising an army in 1363 and so banned the sport. Edward IV also followed the example and in 1409, fines of 20 shillings and/or imprisonment for 6 days, was recorded for anyone playing the game.
These days Easter is a busy time for football clubs, a period that often decides where clubs will end up next season. It's Manchester United who are wishing there could be a ban on football in England at the moment. They have just had a shocker.