The Ball Game champ
BATTLE ON THE STREETS FOR PLACE IN TOWN FOLKLORE
THE 2018 Atherstone Ball Game champion has been revealed.
Macauley Riley, of Grendon, claimed victory after a gruelling two-hour battle to be crowned the winner of the 819th Ball Game contest.
Macauley grabbed the ball just after 4.30pm and held off the whole town to claim his prize and write himself into Atherstone folklore.
Cheers bounded through the Legion pub as the winner made his was into the watering hole, carrying the Atherstone Ball above his head.
Businessman Ian Miller, of Towtrust, kicked things off at 3pm when he threw the ball out of the window of Barclays Bank in Long Street.
But before the game started, the town remembered businessman Joe Lau with a minute’s silence.
Once the ball was released, though, the madness ensued.
As youngsters got a kick of the ball in the first hour, things started to get serious after 4pm as the crowds of competitors began to circle the street in a bid to take glory. But Macauley had the strength to hold on and take the win.
This year’s victory is extra special as it is the first time the ball has been made in the town since 1982.
A black ribbon had also been placed on the ball in memory of Atherstone stalwart Noel Johnston, who died in April 2017.
He threw the ball out of Barclays Bank back in 2014 to start the contest. THE Atherstone Ball Game is a ‘Medieval football’ game played annually on Shrove Tuesday.
The game honours a match played between Leicestershire and Warwickshire in 1199, when teams used a bag of gold as a ball, and which was won by Warwickshire.
At one time similar events were held in many towns throughout England, but Atherstone’s is now one of only two such games that are played each year at Shrovetide, the other being the Royal Shrovetide Football match held in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.