05-03-2025
Down'Ards win Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football game
An ancient football game in Derbyshire has finished with a victory to the Down' of players turned out again for Royal Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne, which is held on Shrove Tuesday and Ash game has taken place nearly every year since 1667 and features rival players in teams called the Up'Ards and Down'Ards competing to move the ball to opposite ends of the Down'Ards "goaled" on day one, which ended up being the only goal during the two-day affair.
Ashbourne farmer David Bott had the honour of "turning the ball up" to get play under way at 14:00 GMT on Wednesday, the honour had fallen to another local farmer, Brian the ball to be "goaled", the teams must attempt to manoeuvre the ball across their respective sides of the town, before tapping the ball three times against the goals at either end.
On day one, after going missing for nearly two hours, the ball was goaled by Martyn Taylor at around 20:20 GMT. After scoring, Mr Taylor was lifted on to the shoulders of his teammates down to the Greenman pub as day one ended: Down'Ards 1-0 Up' spending most of the first day in the centre of Ashbourne, the game headed into the fields on day two - which included a mischievous "rogue ball" that entered the the Up'Ards best attempts for an equaliser, they were not able to "goal" the ball in time, and the Down'Ards came out as year of Shrovetide may be over, but it is now only 52 weeks until it happens all over again...
