Ashbourne Shaw Croft Car Park

It’s Shrove Tuesday and day one of the Royal Ashbourne Shrovetide Football game. Today was cloudy but dry – and no rain! Ashbourne Shrovetide is held over two days - Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday - and the game has been played for over a hundred years. In fact the roll of honour goes back to 1891.

The ball was turned up slightly early at just before 2.00pm by Up’ard Councillor Simon Spencer. The ball then remained within the vicinity of the Shaw Croft car park and the yard’s at the back of St John Street for over an hour before heading off down Compton to the bottom of Derby Hill.

The ball was then taken across fields to Clifton Road (the majority of followers walking up Old Derby Hill and then following fields to across to the Clifton Road). The hug took very little time to reach the fields near the Clifton Goal. At 4.37pm the ball was goaled at Clifton by Down’ard Steve Bloor.

Down’ards 1 Up’ards 0.

The ball was carried back to Ashbourne and the Green Man Hotel to register the goal. A second ball was turned up by Hubert Connell at 5.45pm. No further goals were scored before 10.00pm on the first day of play.

On Ash Wednesday the ball was turned up by Sean Griffin and at the age of 88 he is thought to be one of the oldest to start the game. The days play remained in the town for a time before heading off across the fields towards Sturston Mill. The up'ards scored at 7.23pm with Robyn Wright goaling the ball.

The final score for this year was Down'ards 1 Up'ards 1.