The 'Fool', who represents the boy who found the Hood but was too shy to return it to Lady de Mowbray. His face is marked with soot to represent the smoking of the fool: he has a straw fire lit underneath his plinth as he gives his speech (so it's not actually blackface).

It was this Fool's first Game and he'd been drinking for a solid 12 hours at this point!

#Haxey #HaxeyHood #England #EnglishTradition

Yours truly, preparing with a pre-game beverage.

#Haxey #HaxeyHood

Haxey village sign, commemorating the game. Featured is the Chief Boggin. The traditional song is also inscribed:

"Hoose agen hoose, toon agen toon. If you see a man in the street, knock im doon. But don't 'ot him."

"But don't (hurt) him" is a relatively modern addition, suggesting the game was more of a mass brawl at one point.

#Haxey #HaxeyHood #England #EnglishTradition

Some more pictures from yesterday's #HaxeyHood game.

1) Local children pose with the Lord of the Hood and the Hood itself.

At some point Lady de Mowbray's hood morphed into this 3ft leather cylinder, presumably to make something strong and durable enough to survive the 'game'. Feel quite proud to have gotten my hand on the Hood in the Sway!

#Haxey #HaxeyHood #England #EnglishTradition

Finished my first ever #HaxeyHood. After about 3 hours of this we wore down Westwoodside and got the Hood back to Haxey. To my regular pub, in fact, where it will hang above the bar until next year's game.

Think there were a couple of broken ankles, but I've escaped with just a sprained pinky finger and every part of my body hurting.

RT @brucerollinson@twitter.com

James Chatwin the ceremonial fool speaks to mark the start of the Haxey Hood game taking place for the first time since 2019 and dates back to the 14th century #haxeyhood
#traditions #englishtradition

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/brucerollinson/status/1611454817544683521

Happy New Year!

Today's #Geograph #POTD. #PictureOfTheDay, features the mob-ball games played in #Orkney on this day. The game, and the ball, are both called 'Ba'. There are similar traditions in other places, such as the #HaxeyHood.

Click through the link for a fuller explanation than I can fit here.

#Photography #Scotland #Tradition #Sport #Game #NewYearsDay #Spectacle

"New Year's Day Men's Ba"
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Ian Balcombe -
https://geograph.org.uk/p/4359632

I'm going to be competing in this in a few weeks' time. I've always wanted to be part of a traditional English mob game since studying them at college and this one has the benefit of both being nearby and not as inherently lethal as cheese rolling.

https://youtu.be/wNV7Wz0C2ww

#HaxeyHood
#MobGames
#England
#CheeseRolling