Eton wall game played

One big match takes place per year around St Andrew's Day, when Eton's Collegers scholarship holders and Oppidans full-fee-paying pupils go head to head. The game is played up against an meter-long wall that was built in , on a pitch just five meters wide.

Both teams try to get the ball down to the other end of the pitch to score a goal, but this is no easy matter - the last one was scored in A boy on the Collegers team pulls up his socks during the Eton Wall Game, which originated in Eton College Chapel is visible in the background as the Collegers have a team talk during half time. The Collegers and Oppidans teams play the game.

The idea is to move the ball along the wall with your feet and score a goal at the far end. I know I never will, but occasionally you come across a scene that has barely changed for hundreds of years. This was certainly the case when I visited Eton College this week to photograph the annual Eton Wall Game between the Collegers scholarship holders and the Oppidans full-fee-paying pupils.

On the annual St. Andrews Day match, the Oppidans climb over the wall, after throwing their caps over in defiance of the Scholars, while the Collegers march down from the far end of College Field, arm-in-arm, towards the near end, where they meet the Oppidans.

The aim of the game is to move the ball towards the opponents end of the playing area. In those last few yards of the field is an area called the [calx]. In this area a player can earn a [shy] worth one point by lifting the ball against the wall with his foot.

A teammate then touches the ball with his hand and shouts [Got it! These two plays must happen within the calx. After this the scoring team can attempt a goal worth nine points by throwing the ball at a designated target a garden door at one end of the field and a tree at the other end. Players can also score a kicked goal, worth five points, if he kicks the ball out and it hits a goal during the normal course of play.

The main game consists of the two sets of players forming a rugby-style scrummage called a [Bully] in which neither team may [furk] the ball, which is to hook it backwards except in Calx, where a different type of Bully called a Calx Bully occurs. The Bully is formed next to the Wall and crabs slowly up and down the Wall until the ball emerges.

Many players, particularly those whose position is actually against the Wall, lose the skin off their elbows, hips and knees. Because of this, players usually wear long sleeves.

Players within the Bully shove and push each other, mostly with their bodies but also by placing their fists against the faces of the opposition and attempting to lever them backwards and away from the Wall. Actual punching is not permitted, and grabbing an opponents shirt [holding] is also not allowed.

The field used for the sport is a strip of ground 5m wide and m long called "The Furrow" which has a slightly curved brick wall next to it. The last few yards of the field on either side called the "calx", and two targets a garden door and a tree one at each end, are all used as a part of scoring.

The objective of the sport is to move the ball towards the opposing team's end of the field. Within the calx, a team can score a "Shy" which is worth one point, with one player raising the ball against the wall with his foot and another player touching the ball with his hands and shouting "got it".

After the shy is scored, a team can continue to score a goal, which is worth nine points, by throwing the ball at the opposing team's target. Teams can score a field goal worth five points at any time during the match from anywhere in the field, by kicking the ball at the target.