Atherstone Ball Game
The match is usually started at 3.00pm on Shrove Tuesday by a celebrity guest, usually someone associated with the area, who is invited to throw the ball from the upstairs of a building on Long Street.
Among those to throw the ball out to the crowd are rugby player Wally Holmes in 1953, actor Sid James in 1963, comedian Jimmy Tarbuck in 1968, comedian Larry Grayson in 1976, former Aston Villa manager Brian Little in 1985 and 2019, soul-singer Edwin Starr in 1994, footballer Gordon Banks in 1995, television newsreader Llewella Bailey in 2000, and actress Annette Badland in 2017.
[17] The original medieval football game honoured by the annual event was held in Atherstone in 1199, during which teams from Warwickshire and Leicestershire competed to win a bag of gold offered as a prize by King John.
[1][18] Medieval football matches were more common before the 20th century, but their violent nature led the government of the time to pass the Highway Act 1835 to prevent it being played in the streets, although games continued to take place in Atherstone.
[19] The Cheshire family, who won the game during World War II, filled the ball with cigarettes and tobacco to send to British troops of the Eighth Army, who were stationed in the Sahara desert.
[19] The 2005 game marked the first occasion on which money was raised for charity, with funds donated to the Indian Ocean Tsunami Appeal.
"[10] Following the 2019 game, a clip of participants fighting received 3.4 million views on Facebook, and a report in the Daily Mirror newspaper claimed that a man's ear had been ripped off during the fracas.
[10][12][24] The 2020 game, held on 25 February of that year, was abandoned around halfway through the match when a steward was taken ill, having collapsed from a heart attack at the town's Conservative Club.
He was treated at the scene by first responders – special constables and paramedics from West Midlands Ambulance Service – before being airlifted to hospital, where he underwent medical procedures.
[28] The 2023 game was reported to have been the scene of a number of violent incidents, including a mass brawl where several kicks and punches were thrown, and during which damage was caused to a William Hill bookies.
[32] In 2011, the Coventry Telegraph reported that a new housing development in Australia which shares its name with Atherstone was keen to host a version of the ball game, and forge links with its UK counterpart.
The article quoted Bob Turner, a local councillor from the City of Melton, who said: "It would be great to import the game when we have a main street built.
