Pupils playing Harrow Football or “Footer”
Historical Schools which off er quirky or unique sports...
● Eton The Wall Game and the Field Game are diff erent, deliciously eccentric versions of individual codes of football, mostly originating from early scrimmages, widespread in medieval times, in which two opposing teams attempted to move a football from one end of a road to another with few or no rules. Like Winchester Football and the Harrow Game, the two Eton Games are now carefully codifi ed with rules of mystifying complexity and are far less brutal and dangerous than early
versions. The abstruse terms remain: An Eton Wall Game scrummage is called a “Bully”. Grinding your opponent’s face with roughened gloves is known as “knuckling”, while illegally hooking the ball backwards is known as “furking”. Each of the games enjoys a following within its school community and among the Old Boys but is rarely played outside. Eton Fives is the most picturesque of the versions of the game of fi ves. Nicknamed hand-tennis, the game is played in many public schools on
special 3-sided courts with players hitting the balls against the walls with their gloved hands. Eton Fives is played on a court with a buttress (known as a pepper) and step. It is modelled on an existing section of Eton College chapel and is mostly played competitively as a doubles game.
● Wellington College The Field Gun run – now performed by Wellington College students only – is a reference to the competition which requires two teams to manhandle
two disassembled replica fi ring 121b guns over rough terrain (including the “chasm” – 5ft high and 28ft long), and then to re-assemble them. The race, which used to be performed by Royal Navy crews is arduous. It requires the highest levels of physical fi tness and teamwork and the Wellington College crews train for months beforehand.
● Harrow School Harrow football, the clay-drenched kickabout favoured by Churchill and King Hussein of Jordan and
46 FirstEleven Michaelmas 2011
www.fi rstelevenmagazine.co.uk
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