The Ba'

This is for Mackintosh. Year before last I promised her I would blip the Kirkwall Ba' game for her and didn't manage it. So this year I made a special effort and dragged myself, my youngest son and my cold out in the crisp clear day to do just that. Proved to be the best cold cure I could have!

The Ba' is a game of street football, although anyone looking for any similarity to soccer would be a bit confused. In fact anyone arriving with no idea of what was going on would be forgiven for thinking it was just one big stramash.

Two teams. Uppies and Doonies. Each has a goal and the aim is to get the Ba' to your own goal. The Ba' (a heavy leather ball, specially made for each game) is thrown up from the Mercat Cross in front of the cathedral at 1pm on christmas day and new year's day each year. If you want to know more about the ins and outs of the game have a look here here.

Today Campbell and arrived about an hour after the game started and the scrum was still opposite the Kirk Green. As we watched and wished folk we know a Happy New Year the ba' suddenly was thrown out of the scrum and the crowd started to run. (It's not a spectator sport for those who can't get out of the way quickly. These guys take no prisoners and you have to be able to shift in case you get stood on.) At the same time as everyone is moving out of the way, everyone is also trying to follow the ba' and get a good look. There were ba' players running after the ba' everywhere and quite a few lying on the ground.

The break headed down Victoria Street and stopped where you can see it in the pic here. It can be difficult to tell where the players stop and the crowd starts but if you look you can see the steam rising from the players! Campbell climbed up on one of the barriers and we watched for a wee while. After a bit it appeared that nothing much was going to happen so he got down and we wandered closer... just at the point everything started to move, in our direction.

Everyone started to run and in a street this wide you quickly get out of the way. Luckily it was a false break but by the point we realised this we had made it out of the street and decided that was enough adrenalin rush for one day and headed home.

At the point of loading this the game isn't finished, last report on-line is that the scrum isn't not far from where we left it, it's after 4 and getting dark. The game can go on for hours yet. I'll check later and let you know the outcome. There is a boys Ba' which starts earlier in the day and the Uppies won it.

Once the goal is reached there is then a 'discussion' as to which player within the team should actually win the Ba'. Have a look at this video of the Uppies's xmas day winner (who happens to be a respected member of the community and a valued client of mine). Remember, most of these guys are all on the same team!!!

So Mackintosh, that's a glimpse of it for you. Some day I expect you to come see it in person. Now there would be a blip meet to remember!


EDIT

The 2009 New Year's Ba' went UP at 5.30pm. Which means the Uppies took all 4 ba this season.