Royal Shrovetide Football

Royal Shrovetide Football

The Royal Shrovetide Football Match occurs annually on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday in the town of Ashbourne in Derbyshire, England. Shrovetide ball games have been played in England since at least the 12th century from the reign of Henry II (1154–89). The Ashbourne game also known as "hugball" has been played from at least c.1667 although the exact origins of the game are unknown due to a fire at the Royal Shrovetide Committee office in the 1890s which destroyed the earliest records. One of the most popular origin theories suggests the macabre notion that the 'ball' was originally a severed head tossed into the waiting crowd following an execution. No evidence exists to support this improbable story.

One of the earliest references for football in the County of Derby comes in a poem from 1683

Burlesque upon the Great Frost.
Two towns, that long that war had raged
Being at football now engaged
For honour, as both sides pretend,
Left the brave trial to be ended
Till the next thaw for they were frozen
On either part at least a dozen,
With a good handsome space between 'em
Like Rollerich stones, if you've seen 'em
And could no more run, kick, or trip ye
Than I can quaff off Aganippe.
Charles Cotton (1630-1687)

Shrovetide football played between "Two towns" in Derby is often credited with being the source of the term local derby. A more widely accepted origin theory is the Epsom Derby horse race. Whatever the origins the Local Derby is now a recognised term for a football game played between local rivals and a Derby is a horse race.

A previously unknown tentative link between Royal Shrovetide football and La soule played in Tricot, Picardy was established in 2012 by history and sociology of sport lecturer Laurent Fournier from the Universite de Nantes. Whilst undertaking a study of "folk football", he noticed that the Coat of arms of the Cokayne family (seated in Ashborne from the 12th century) painted on a 1909 Shrovetide ball displayed in the window of the Ashborne Telegraph office contained thee cockerels in its heraldic design. He recognized this matched the emblem of Tricot (meaning "three cocks") where La soule is played on the first Sunday of Lent and Easter Monday. He was welcomed to Ashborne by the Royal Shrovetide Committee and was a guest at the Shrovetide luncheon. Research into Royal Shrovetide Football's lost history is ongoing. (August 2012)