Kirkwall Ba', Orkney
CELEBRATING ORKNEY STYLE!
Pic: Charles
Tait
The Kirkwall Ba' is a rough and ready game played through the streets
of Orkney twice a year and as Lorraine Wakefield discovered it is
definitely not for the faint hearted!
Christmas and New Year are celebrated the world over in many different ways with lots of varied traditions but nowhere are they celebrated in quite as boisterous fashion as they are in Orkney.
Every Christmas and New Year's day shopkeepers and householders in Kirkwall board up their windows and doors in preparation for the traditional ba' game involving several hundred players and crowd.
The ba' is a kind of street rugby that starts at Mercat Cross in front of the cathedral when the ba' is thrown up into the crowd at one o'clock and the two teams the Uppies - those born south of the cathedral - and the Doonies - those from the north side of the cathedral - begin their epic battle.
The aim of the game is to get the ball into the "goal" - the Uppies aiming to get the ball up against a wall in the south of the town and the Doonies hoping to put the ball into the harbour at the north.
Tactics are quite simple really with a huge scrum building around the player with the ball in the middle and each side trying to manipulate it towards their goal while the other tries to halt their path.
Sometimes breaks are made from the scrum and the ba' moves quickly down the winding lanes of Kirkwall before the opposite team regroup and halt its path once more. The ba' has even been sneaked through houses or across rooftops in a bid to win!
There are no rules in the ba' and although it tends to be rough and tumble there is an air of courtesy among the players who have to heave and push for hours on end to bring the game to a conclusion, which often doesn't happen until early evening.
When one team finally manages to reach their goal the ba' - a cork dust filled leather ball specially hand crafted for each game - is awarded to a player from the winning side and takes pride of place in their home.
A veteran of many ba' games and a winner himself, Brian Kemp of the Orkney Tourist Board, said that everyone entered into the spirit of the ba' with great gusto making it an eventful and entertaining day for all.
"There are probably between 200 and 400 players and if you include the crowd then the street becomes full and when the crowd put their weight behind the ba' it is considerably more (taking part)," explained Brian.
"It is only the lads that take part in it and there are no rules apart from the teams - if you came in (to the town) by air you're an Uppie and if you come in by sea you're a Doonie.
"I have played over 70 ba' games and never missed one and eventually won in 1974," he said.
Pic: Charles Tait
One
thing you can always be sure of at the ba' is that it will be rough
and while spectating visitors are advised to give the scrum a wide
berth the non-playing crowd of locals, mostly women, are not averse
to lending a helping hand to the players, according to Brian.
"We do get visitors coming up but they don't tend to last more than five minutes - it is lovely and rough," he joked. "It's the sort of game with lots of body contact.
"The women are the worst of the lot as they cheer on the players and can foul attempts to get away with the ball so they play a very vocal role as well."
Despite the furious fight to win the ba' the one thing that continues year on year is the great spirit of friendliness that exists between the players who, once it is all over, join together to celebrate another successful game.
"During the contest we have got no friends but once it is all over we are all friends again," continued Brian. "The main thing about it is to treat everyone as you would expect to be treated yourself. There may be a few heated moments during the game but once it's all over there is a great camaraderie.
"It is all part of the ritual of the game - the playing of it and then the spirit afterwards," he added.
The exact origins of the ba' are unclear but it is thought to have evolved from early Yule celebrations and is the only mass football game left of the many which were once held across Scotland and England.
It is known the ba' has been played in Orkney since at least the mid 17th century but the style of the game has changed over the years and originally it was kicked and rarely handled whereas in the modern game it is picked up and carried.
The New Year Ba' was the most important game for many years until in the late 19th century the Christmas Day Ba' started to gain in popularity and now both are important occasions.
Over the centuries many legends have sprung up around the ba' with the most popular and well known of these being the story of the evil tyrant Tusker, who had prominent protruding canine teeth.
The evil Tusker was defeated by a young Orcadian man who rowed across the Pentland Firth to track him down and returned to Orkney on horseback with Tusker's severed head tied to his saddle.
But during the journey the dead Tusker's protruding teeth punctured the man's leg and the wound became infected killing him. The legend says before he died the Orcadian managed to stagger into Mercat Cross where he threw the tyrant's head into a crowd of townsfolk who were so outraged they kicked the head through the streets in anger.
There is also a suggestion that the ba' may have originated as a fertility rite as it was believed that if the Uppies won they would be rewarded with a bountiful harvest whereas if the Doonies were victorious there would be plentiful catches of fish.
Whatever the true origins of the Kirkwall Ba' it has become an integral part of the Orcadian calendar and is sure to remain an important occasion for centuries to come.
More information about Orkney can be found on the website www.visitorkney.com
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