Down'Ards win Royal Shrovetide Football game

An ancient football game in Derbyshire has finished with a victory to the Down'Ards.

Thousands of players turned out again for Royal Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne, which is held on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.

The game has taken place nearly every year since 1667 and features rival players in teams called the Up'Ards and Down'Ards competing to move the ball to opposite ends of the town.

The Down'Ards "goaled" the ball on day one, which ended up being the only goal during the two-day affair.

Ashbourne farmer David Bott had the honour of "turning the ball up" to get play under way at 14:00 GMT on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the honour fell to another local farmer, Brian Pegg.

For the ball to be "goaled", the teams must attempt to manoeuvre the ball across their respective sides of the town, before tapping the ball three times against the goals at either end.

On day one, after going missing for nearly two hours, the ball was goaled by Martyn Taylor at about 20:20 GMT.

After scoring, Mr Taylor was lifted on to the shoulders of his teammates down to The Greenman pub as day one ended Down'Ards 1-0 Up'Ards.

Whilst spending most of the first day in the centre of Ashbourne, the game headed into the fields on day two - which included a mischievous "rogue ball" that entered the game.

Despite the Up'Ards' best attempts for an equaliser, they were not able to "goal" the ball in time, and the Down'Ards came out as winners.

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