CELEBRATING ASHBOURNE ROYAL SHROVETIDE FOOTBALL
One Rule: Do Not Kill Your Opponent
2020 Shrovetide Football Postcard
NEWS: 2020 Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football
The 2020 Shrovetide Souvenir Postcard Is Out
ASHBOURNE, Derbyshire, February 25th 2020 —
We started distributing the new 2020 Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Souvenir Postcards at lunchtime on Shrove Tuesday at the Ashbourne Shrovetide Football game - in glorious sunshine! But the weather soon turned to a more Shrovetide-like rain and hail, then eventually sleet and snow.
The postcards shows the ball emerging from the hug outside the Empire (where Ashbourne Baptist Church meets every Sunday and during the week). The picture was taken by our pastor, Nathan Clarke, last year, when so many players piled onto the iron railings that they collapsed but, as far as we know, no one was hurt.
Don't miss your postcard for 2020...
You can also see the back of this year's Shrovetide souvenir postcard.
Photo Credit: Dave Layzell
Day 2: Last Minute Goal
- Congratulations Craig Frith!
ASHBOURNE, Derbyshire, February 26th 2020 —
Down'ards played hard to take the advantage in the early game today, but after a few strenuous hours the Up'ards forced the ball back to Shaw Croft, and then made a huge break, with play heading towards the river in a Sturston direction.
Half an hour before the second ball cut-off, the ambulance and fire services had to negotiate the crowds to help a player who had impaled his leg on a metal spike, and by the time darkness fell any opportunity for the Down'ards to win vanished. The ball again disappeared for a while. By 8.30pm a huge crowds had gathered at the Sturston goal but 20 minutes later the ball seemed to be heading back towards town, so hopes for another Up'ard goal were fading.
The ball disappeared - apparently lost in brambles. But shortly afterwards Craig Frith goaled the ball - at Clifton - a dramatic equalising goal for the Down'ards, just 11 minutes before the game's official end.
Photo Credit: Liz Ford
Day 1: Goaled by Up'ards
- Congratulatons Tom Leighton!
ASHBOURNE, Derbyshire, February 25th 2020 —
The crowd cheered at the announcement that the heavily swollen Henmore Brook was still in play, John Lemon turned up the ball in bright sunshine, and so started the first day of play. It took an hour for Up'ards to force the play out of Shaw Croft. Then play moved over the Fishpond Meadow to the cricket pitch and into the river. As temperatures droppped and sleet set in, thousands of supporters fell away.
During this first evening of Shrovetide 2020, the remaining hundreds of supporters waited for an hour or more
in mud sleet and snow at Sturston Mill, able to hear the approach of the hug, Down'ards battling valiantly all the way but unable to prevent the Up'ards' progress.
One StoryHub reporter 'DerbyJourno', commented:
"There were a few cries to the journalists and spectators to turn their lights (torches) off, as the players decided in private who would score. Then there were huge, tribal cries as soon the goal happened."
At about 8.15pm Tom Leighton, from Kniveton, goaled the ball for the Up'ards.