Royal Shrovetide

 I watched a short Documentary about festivals around the world that are filled with absolute madness. It is a Red Bull channel feature where they display different festivals that have been going on around the world. In this series of episodes the only common factor is the insanity.
The series is called "Archaic Festivals." The episode i caught today was a bout a game played in the streets of Ashbourne, England once a year. It's similar to Rugby except the entire city, including the river, is the playing field. Imagine a riot taking place down town and the objective of the rioters was to grab a ball and work it to the other side of town to score a goal..  The game is called Royal Shrovetide Football and it dates back to medieval times. It's absolute madness, catch it on the Red Bull channel or watch some clips of it on youtube.. basically the two is split into two sides, the Up'ards and the Down'ards, based on what side of the river you live on. After that the ball is started off with a bit of ceremony, it's basically anything goes until one side scores on their own goal located at two schools at each end of town. It that simple and that brutal.

 Wikipedia describes as follows:


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.[10][11]

Shrovetide balls typical of those on display in shops and public houses in Ashbourne. These three were on display at the Wheel Inn, Ash Wednesday, 2013. The central ball shows the three cocks that appear on the Cockayne coat of Arms. This image is common to many game balls. To the right is an example of a ball without decoration.

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 Cockayne family (seated in Ashbourne from the 12th century) painted on a 1909 Shrovetide ball displayed in the window of the Ashbourne Telegraph office contained thee cockerels in its heraldic design. He recognised this matched the emblem of Tricot (also carrying three cockerels) where La soule is played on the first Sunday of Lent and Easter Monday. He was welcomed to Ashbourne 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)