Jimmy and the river kings
BEV OAKLEY returns with her look back at some of the giants of Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football, as we continue our countdown to the game. This week: Jimmy and the Grants.
ONE family that stands out for producing generations of Shrovetide players is the Grant family. In my time they have been represented by Jimmy Grant, John Grant Senior, Ernie Grant, Tommy Poxon, John Junior (coming from Warrington every year), Gladys, her sons Andrew and Jimmy, and their sons and grandsons.
Then there are the Startins, who are also Grants, notably Nancey, and her niece Georgina (of the Georgettes), who followed the game passionately. According to Ernie Grant, the oldest Shrovetide ball was goaled by his great-grandad Atterbury. The Atterburys are also entwined with the Grants. Surely a Shrovetide dynasty to be proud of!
In 1967, the second year I went to the game, on Ash Wednesday, I recall following Jimmy Grant and his cousin Ernie as they walked all the way down the Bentley Brook with the ball.
Ernie has since related the story which goes: “Jimmy, Ernie, and John Grant Senior had the ball, and were eventually joined by Phillip Hambleton (son of Topsy Grant) and John Bagnall (son of Jack Bagnall – Bagnall’s Grocers in St John Street) and Guy Harrison.
“Phillip was on the ball, and John Bagnall tried to get it off him, and was flattened for his trouble. The plan was to take the ball across the Dove, into Tatton’s yard and then on to Clifton.”
On the Shrove Tuesday of this year, 1967, the very day before, there had been three goals scored at Clifton, one by Peter Harrison (Piggy to Shrovetiders), his third goal – 1960, 1962, and 1967. ‘Piggy’ still decided that even the day after, he was having none of it, and was prepared to fight for a fourth ball. So as the ball proceeded towards Clifton, ‘Piggy’ and Guy were trading punches. This ball was not goaled.
Ernie got his Shrovetide ball in 1970 and the story goes: “Jimmy Clarke (Crinko) hid with the ball in Greenwood’s outside toilet on Dovehouse Green, a house on the bank opposite the PNEU school, next door to Florrie Blackwell, and Annie Brumby and her husband Jess, both daughters of the ‘Ninety Burtons,’ sisters of Polly and my great grandmother. Jimmy Grant was aware of Crinko hiding in the outside toilet and it wasn’t long before the Grants were once again on their way down to Clifton in the icy Henmore.
“John and Ernie Grant took the ball over the lock gate at the back of Nestlé Factory, and skilfully negotiated the quick-sand patch, the willow tree roots, and onto Clifton.
“At the goal it was a question of who was to goal it, and fighting broke out. Jimmy Grant took charge and formed a V to protect John and Ernie with the ball, which enabled Ernie to goal it.”
John Grant Senior was to goal a ball three years later, the ball thrown up by George Peach (who ended up being thrown in the river).
John Grant Jr goaled his ball in 1977. The Grants always stuck together and were famous for their river play. They would buy three bottles of whisky each, and hide them, covering them over and marking them with a stick all down the river bank, en route to the Clifton goal. In Ernie’s words “when Jimmy got in the river and started striding down to Clifton, it was the signal for all the other Grants to support him.”
Jimmy goaled his ball in 1950 at the Clifton goal. He was a tall, upright and commanding figure, lithe and handsome and could handle himself; he was a force to be reckoned with. He had been a marine in the Third Commandos. He was bayonetted in the back at Anzio.
Jimmy did not suffer fools lightly and was handy with his fists at Shrovetide. Ernie reminisced just how nasty the hug was in those days with Malc Chell, Joe Wibberley, Don Lowndes and Guy Harrison. Yet it was a lot of fun, too.
For instance, after a length of prolonged river play, the men would decide to rest and sing songs and, if it was anyone’s birthday ‘Happy Birthday’ would ring out. Other huggers and river players at this time were: Hubert Connell, Colin Legrice, John and George Mansfield, Colin Mcguinness (who travelled from Derby to play), Mick Bailey, Max Mellor, Sam Clarke, Jimmy Clarke, John Wibberley, Eddie Mee (my mum’s brother), Allan Gould, John Allen and Jimmy Allen.
If the ball ever disappeared with a runner after three or four hours of river play, the players would retire to The Wheel Pub, in Compton, where there was a roaring fire, and the wet players would take it in turns in front of it by forming a circle, take a draught and one pace to the right until they were all dry again.
Sometimes if the players needed a break for a quick drink, they would leave the ball in the huge hands of Phillip Tomlinson, safe in the knowledge it would be there when the players returned.
This easy-going manner about how the game was once played is hard to imagine in days of all-year training, with more of a competitive and serious nature.
Younger Grants have also scored Shrovetide balls; Gladys Lemon’s son Andrew, goaled at Sturston in 1980, and his sons Stuart and Wayne were to goal balls in the next millennium.
The 1990s saw many balls run off with by runners like Paddy Kerr, Steve Challinor, Geoff Harrison, Steve Hudson, and David ‘Roo’ Hollingworth.
However, Gladys’s other younger son Jimmy Lemon (my contemporary) was a river player and goaled in 1990. He won the draw, and in the foray, had to be pulled from under the river hug by David (Squirt) Chell in order to goal it.
I used to witness Gladys herself in the river on the edge of the hug and I am sure she would be very proud of all her family’s achievements at Shrovetide.