Royal Shrovetide Football: Clean-up in Ashbourne after ancient game

The Up'Ards beat the Down'Ards by "goaling" the ball on the second day

Normality is being restored to a Derbyshire town following the latest Royal Shrovetide Football game.

The ancient tradition, which sees players compete to move a ball to opposite ends of Ashbourne, is played on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.

The brutal game attracts thousands of spectators to the town nearly every year.

The Up'Ards beat the Down'Ards after they successfully "goaled" the ball on the second day of play.

Players compete to move the ball to opposite ends of Ashbourne

The game began at 14:00 GMT on Tuesday when the ball was "turned up" from a new plinth by Paul Cook.

The National Farmers' Union agent had been held responsible for the cancellation of the game in 2001 when farmers were struggling to control the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

He said: "Seeing those thousands and thousands of expectant people waiting for the ball to be turned in was a memory I'll never forget."

Henmore Brook is the divide in the town that determines whether a player is an Up'Ard or a Down'Ard

To score the Down'Ards - those born south of Henmore Brook - needed to goal the ball at old Clifton Mill.

The Up'Ards - those born north of the brook - needed to goal the ball at old Sturston Mill.

For eight hours players fought their way around the town but the game ended goalless at 22:00 on Tuesday.

Mick Mee said he "burst into tears" when he was asked to turn up the ball during the 2023 game

Play resumed on Wednesday afternoon when the ball was turned up by youth worker Mick Mee.

He said: "It was like a sea of faces when I threw that ball out there - it was unbelievable."

The game continued for another eight hours with Up'Ard Tom Allen goaling the ball at 19:42.

He said: "I was just the lucky one at the end, everyone worked just as hard throughout the day to make it happen."

The ball was only goaled once in the two-day game

Mr Allen said the way the game went on Wednesday worked to his side's advantage.

"We always play a better game in the fields so our game plan was to get it in the fields and it worked," he said.

"We didn't pick the easy route - we picked every ditch, every fence we possibly could."

It was a second consecutive win for the Up'Ards, who won 3-1 in 2022.

The game was cancelled in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Players helped to clean up the town after the game ended

A clean-up of the town has since begun with litter being collected from the streets and any damaged property being repaired.

Sarah Heaton and Helen Cammiss boarded up the window of their pottery studio in Dig Street ahead of the game.

They said: "It looks like Armageddon. It's knee-deep in litter, there's stuff everywhere piled up in the doorways, in the road."

A wall was damaged at the edge of Shawcroft Car Park

However, they said the clean-up was always a "slick operation" and the town looked "pristine" in just a few hours.

"After the Wednesday all the players will be out mending fences, they'll help you take your boards down, they'll be picking up litter, because they want it to continue the next year," they said.

Sarah Heaton and Helen Cammiss boarded up the window of their pottery studio ahead of the game