Eton Wall Game - Play

Play

The main game consists of the two sets of players forming a rugby-style scrummage (called a "Bully") in which neither team may "furk" the ball, which is to hook it backwards (except in Calx, where a different type of Bully called a Calx Bully occurs). The Bully is formed next to the Wall and crabs slowly up and down the Wall until the ball emerges. Many players, particularly those whose position is actually against the Wall, lose the skin off their elbows, hips and knees. Because of this, players usually wear long sleeves. Players within the Bully shove and push each other, mostly with their bodies but also by placing their fists against the faces of the opposition and attempting to lever them backwards and away from the Wall. Actual punching is not permitted, and grabbing an opponent's shirt ("holding") is also not allowed.

When in Calx, a different type of Bully called a Count's Bully occurs. The fastest way to make ground is by kicking the ball upfield and out of play whenever it comes sideways out of the Bully – unlike most types of football, play is restarted opposite where the ball stops after it had gone out, or was touched after it had gone out

As such, the most common tactic revolves around the formation of a 'phalanx'. This consists of a tunnel (coming out from the wall, diagonally forward from the position of the ball) of players from one team who are crouching on hands and feet next to each other. Once the team in possession of the ball has formed a successful phalanx, it attempts to pass the ball down the 'tunnel' using the knees of the players forming it, to a player standing at the end of the phalanx, known as lines, whose job it is to kick the ball upfield. The team not in possession is constantly attempting to disrupt this, and win the ball back.

The game lasts up to an hour, with two halves of 30 minutes each. Many games end 0-0. Scoring goals (ten points) is very rare; they occur about once every 10 years and there has been no goals scored in the St. Andrew Day game since 1909. There was a goal scored in a recent scratch match (a less formal warm-up match for the St. Andrew's Day game) in October 2009. However, shies (worth 1 point) are scored more frequently, with the Oppidan side scoring shies in 2002 and 2004.

In the most recent St. Andrew's Day match, played on 21 November 2009, the outcome of the match was a 0-0 draw, with both sides failing to score. This marked the 100th consecutive St. Andrew's Day match in which no goals were scored by either team. There was, however, a near controversy in the latter stages of the match. With College attacking, a rogue photographer stopped the rolling ball with his foot, preventing it from going into Calx, and thus preventing College an opportunity to score a shy. It was the Oppidan side, however, who finished the match on the upper hand, themselves moving into Calx in the final stages, only for College to deny them from scoring.