@poptop2

I thinks it’s called soccer.

Football is what the Americans play when they throw the ball to each other and catch it in their hands.

 

You mean posh boys invented rules for sports that existed for hundreds of years and wrote them down….

 

Cnapan was a massive, chaotic ball sport played in western Wales as early as the Dark Ages and well into the medieval period. Games were hosted between two neighboring commotes (villages) and any number of men from each could play, leading to games with upwards of 2,000 people. Partially because of this, cnapan was known for its chaotic violence and high risk of injury.

The objective of each team was to get a wooden ball to the church porch of their own commote. As such, the play area spread out for miles without definite borders. In order to reach the goal, the ball could be thrown or carried – or even covertly smuggled. The game typically began around 1 or 2 PM and lasted without pause until sundown. If neither team had won before sunset, a draw would be called. Though the game wasn’t officially won until the ball reached one commote’s church, whenever the ball simply entered the opposing team’s village, the vast majority of the losing team would leave the game, as getting the ball back to their own village before sundown would be unlikely.
Before the start of each game, everyone playing on foot would strip down to only their trousers to avoid getting their shirts torn to shreds in the fray. With one to two thousand people clashing together, injuries and other damages were common. Cnapan was so violent that players even had their hair and beards ripped out on occasion. In addition, while the vast majority of players were on foot, some of those who could afford to do so would play atop horseback, leading to higher risk of injury to those on the ground.

 

In the 80’s and 90’s rugby if you were from Cardiff playing up the valleys had many of the same attributes as Cnapan….except the horses and numbers if participants.

Their team and coaches hated you, the ‘no medical training whatsoever’ magic sponge man hated you, the crowd really hated you.

After the match it was cold showers and beans on baked spud if you were lucky…..something more ambitious involving dubious pastry and fillings if you were not.

God I miss those times. 3o man mass brawls, often the crowd getting involved, then back down to the city centre having been patched up for a night out.

 

Sort of a fusion between contact and extreme sport

 

It was all we had, that and 4 tv channels and psh bikes.

 

Isnt it bizarre that we only had free education for children in 1891.

Theoretically - 80% of adults in their middle age in the 1940's had had no education.

Its apparent the posh boys didn't stop at sports for writing the rules so enshrined by the UK elite, and guarded by the thicker UK patriots.

 

One of Terry Pratchet's Discworld novels is based on this "foot-the-ball" as he termed it, the ball being a chunk of wood.