the afternoon off !

It's been a very, very busy month for me and last week I took the opportunity to have the afternoon off....if you've read any of my blog entries you'll be aware that I live in the beautiful market town of Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Now this town has a crazy tradition of playing street football on shrovetide Tuesday and Wednesday, basically one side of the town play the other in a battle to get the ball to one of the goals that are positioned 2 miles apart. Hundreds of people join in and the game is played until a goal is scored. It's a mad time to be in Ashbourne, the schools shut, the shops get boarded up and everyone is hyped up for two days. We had such a good time on Tuesday, you wouldn't  believe how much fun you can have following a scrum around the town for 5 hours and how exciting it is when you see the ball and a hundred players heading in your direction ! If you've never been I would recommend it but in the meantime here's some photo's taken at Tuesday's match....if you are really interested the match ended up in a draw one goal each to the up'ards and down'ards.

boarded up shops and flags

the high street

following the ball to the start

'turning up the ball'

in the streets

in the river

Lullah hanging on to a shop!

walking back from the clifton goal where the down'ards scored