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This a traditional contest at Easter time between the villages of Hallaton and Medbourne in Leicestershire, which has been held for centuries and obviously has connections to the origins of the sport, rugby. This year many people were wearing shirts of Leicester Tigers, the local top Rugby Union team and some of their success may owe a little to the deep roots which the sport has in the area.
The first pictures below are of Hallaton, with lots of images of people following the bottles and the band from The Fox on the way to the hill for the start of the contest. I also got some pictures of children who told me they go there from Leicester every year to play at mud sliding. That looked like a lot of fun.
It's difficult to see much of the bottle while the game is on because it is hidden under a mass of bodies but occasionally it gets thrown out on one side and someone tries to make of with it to his village line. Hallaton don't have quite so far to go as Medbourne.
There is quite an atmosphere with people calling for their team and occasionally there is a great heave as one side tries hard to make some progress. Then the people on the side where the bottle seems to be heading scatter to avoid being flattened in the rush, but it was good ground this year and the men are mostly only winded. To make sure no one runs out of air under the scrum they open it out a little from time to time. So there is some organisation in the play which only begins after the bottle has been thrown in the air three times and has reached the ground after the third throw.
The lady who walked in the procession and who gives out loaves told me a bit about the bottles. The first is empty and the second is solid. If the best-of-three contest goes to the third bottle it is one full of beer and the winning team gets to drink the contents.
It was a very interesting afternoon out and I even joined in once years ago. Perhaps I'll see you there another year.
I also got a picture of a juggler and of the rock band, called 88mph, who were very good and I suggested they might like to do one of my songs which is called White Slavers and is available to download if you follow the links from my Music page at http://www.offa.50megs.com/Music.htm .
Because it is Hallaton versus Medbourne I wanted to stop off in Medbourne on my way back to Harborough and I got some interesting pictures there. A conservation area called The Hollow had two very friendly swans and I got a picture of them which reminded me of an animation I had, which I put at the end of this list of photos.
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Copyright©2002Andrew Burbidge
andrew_burbidge@hotmail.com
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