Plea for players to join term-time Shrovetide game

Up to 100 players take part in Alnwick's Shrove Tuesday football match

The organiser of one of five remaining Shrovetide football games to take place around the country say he hopes a decent number of players will still turn up, despite the event falling in term-time this year.

The event, in Alnwick, Northumberland, dates back to at least 1762, and is played on the fields by the River Aln, following a procession from Alnwick Castle.

About 80 players took part last year when Shrove Tuesday fell in the school holidays.

Organiser Archie Jenkins said: "We do get a few less when the date falls in term-time and we do worry, but hopefully they'll go up again the following year."

The game begins when a ball is dropped from Alnwick Castle

The historic Shrovetide game has virtually no rules and no referee.

Once played in many towns and villages around England, just a handful of places continue the tradition - including Alnwick and Sedgefield in County Durham.

In Alnwick, players representing the parishes of St Michael's and St Paul's attempt to get the ball through large homemade goals known as hales.

In 2024, St Michael's were the winners with the final score being 2-1.

At the end of the game, the ball is kicked into the river with the person who dives in to retrieve it and take it to the other side known as 'the ball winner'.

The game was once played in the streets of the town, but now a procession leads the players to fields in front of the castle

Since 1976, St Cloud State University, Minnesota in the United States has had a base in Alnwick Castle and many of its students have taken part in the match.

"We usually have up to 15 Americans play but lots of the others come to support their friends," Mr Jenkins said

"Last year Aileen Miller, one of the American students, became the first female ever to score a hale," he added.

In 2024 a woman scored a hale for the first time in the event's history

The game was originally played in the streets of the town, but moved to the area known as Alnwick Pastures below the castle in 1828.

"We're already looking ahead to how we're going to celebrate that 200th anniversary," Mr Jenkins said, adding: "That will be a really big year".