Ashbourne (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Thousands of people turn out for the annual Royal Shrovetide Football match, a game that takes over the streets of Ashbourne, a small town in northern England. The mass-participation ball game involves two teams, whose players are defined by which side of the small brook that bisects the town they were born on, and the aim is to score a goal, which are some three miles apart. “It’s just fighting tooth and nail” says Rowan Taylor, a player, who explains of the game’s rules: “don’t kill each other”. Sally Montague, one of those watching, says “it’s a great, unique game that is fabulous to watch as long as you keepy well away from the ball.”
