Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne

The Royal Shrovetide Football Match takes place in Ashbourne, Derbyshire,  every Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday . I went to photograph it on Tuesday . It's a bizarre mix of wrestling , football and rugby similar to the Haxey Hood I photographed recently. The games origins date back to at least the 12th century and some versions of its history suggest that the ball used for the game was originally a severed head tossed to the crowd after an execution. The game starts at 2pm and can go on until 10 at night . There are no boundaries to the game, resulting in the ball ending up in such diverse terrain as rivers , muddy fields and car parks. A glimpse of the ball is a rare thing as most of the time all you can see is a swaying , steaming , mass of men slowly moving around the town and fields. Every now and then the ball is greeted by cheers at is emerges into the air for a few brief seconds. There are few rules other than the main one that committing murder or manslaughter is prohibited!