The Eton wall game is a game which bears some resemblance to
rugby union that originated at and is still played at Eton College. It is
played on a strip of ground 5 metres wide and 110 metres long ("The
Furrow") next to a slightly curved brick wall ("The Wall")
erected in 1717.
The traditional and most important match of the year is
played on St Andrew's Day, as the Collegers (King's Scholars) take on the
Oppidans (the rest of the school). Although College has only 70 boys to pick
from, compared to the 1250 or so Oppidans, the Collegers have one distinct
advantage: access to the field on which the Wall Game is played is controlled
by a Colleger. Despite this, it is usual for them to allow the Oppidans to use
it whenever they wish.
The wall game being played in the late 19th or early 20th
century. At right is The Wall, the dark strip of ground running alongside it is
The Furrow.
At the annual St Andrew's 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 Wall Game is also played on Ascension Day, immediately
after a 6 a.m. service on the roof of College Chapel. Various scratch matches
are also played throughout the Michaelmas and Lent halves (terms), where boys
from different year groups, as well as masters, take part.
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, if the
umpire says "Given", the scoring team can attempt a goal (worth a
further 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). A player 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 along 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 opponent's shirt
("holding") is also not allowed.
When in Calx, a different type of Bully called a Calx Bully
occurs. The fastest way to make ground is by kicking the ball upfield and out
of play whenever it comes sideways out of the Bully – unlike most types of
football, play is restarted opposite where the ball stops after it had gone
out, or was touched after it had gone out.
Consequently, the most common tactic revolves around the
formation of a 'phalanx'. This consists of a tunnel (coming out from the wall,
diagonally forward from the position of the ball) of players from one team who
are crouching on hands and feet next to each other. Once the team in possession
of the ball has formed a successful phalanx, it attempts to pass the ball down the
'tunnel' using the knees of the players forming it, to a player standing at the
end of the phalanx, known as Lines, whose job it is to kick the ball upfield.
The team not in possession is constantly attempting to disrupt this, and win
the ball back.
The game lasts up to an hour, with two halves of 30 minutes
each. Many games end 0-0. Scoring goals (ten points) is very rare; they occur
about once every 10 years and there have been no goals scored in the St
Andrew's Day game since 1909. There was a goal scored in a recent scratch match
(a less formal warm-up match for the St Andrew's Day game) in May 2016 by a
College player. However, shies (worth 1 point) are scored more frequently.
In the 2015 St Andrew's Day match, the outcome was a 0-0
draw. This marked the 106th consecutive St Andrew's Day match in which no goals
were scored by either team. There was, however, a near controversy in the
latter stages of the match. College was in Calx and shouted "Got it"
to claim that they had scored a shy. Even though even an Oppidan player told
the umpire that it was a clear shy and that it could be seen from where he was,
the umpire claimed he could not see the ball off the ground and did not give
the shy.
In the 2016 game, the 250th St. Andrew's Day match, College
triumphed 1-0 against the Oppidans. This was the 107th consecutive St Andrew's
Day match in which no goals were scored by either team; however, College scored
a shy.
The Wall Game is organized entirely by boys, particularly by
the Keepers (captains) of College Wall, Oppidan Wall and Mixed Wall. Famous
past players of the Wall game include Boris Johnson, who was Keeper of the
College Wall, George Orwell and Harold Macmillan.[citation needed] The First
World War flying ace Arthur Rhys Davids also played, representing College with
Ralph Dominic Gamble in 1915.
Members of the College Wall also annually commemorate the
great Wall Game player Logie Leggatt, making a toast at each year's Christmas
Sock Supper with the words in piam memoriam L.C.L (towards the pious memory of
L.C.L). Despite its renown outside the school, only a very small number of the
250 or so boys in each year group ever take part in the sport, unlike the
lesser-known but much more widely played Eton Field Game.
The Eton Wall Game has been played twice by all-female
teams.
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