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Under Construction |
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Rough guide to the Ba |
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Kirkwall is the furthest north city in the British Isles and is the capital of the Orkney Islands and home to the Kirkwall Ba game . On Christmas Day and New Years Day the Ba game takes place unless Christmas Day and New Years day is a sunday then its played on the monday . The Boys Ba is thrown up at 10.00 and the Mens Ba is thrown up at 1 oclock. Sometimes its thrown up a little bit earlier and sometimes a little bit later than the chime of the St Magnus Cathedral . The Ba is thrown from the merkat cross onto the middle of broad street in the center of Kirkwall . The Ba is usually thrown up by the person who donates the Ba and pays for the costs involved in the making of the trophy sometimes its a past player or in memory of a past player . The Ba is hand made with leather panels sown together and filled with corkdust then painted it is larger and heavier than a football. The Ba's are on display in shop windows and photos can now be seen on the internet prior to and during the games . Around a hundred Boys and over two hundred Men take part and the games can last several hours . All the doors and windows of the shops and houses are barricaded with wooden planks to prevent injuries and damage to property and no cars are parked in the town centre . There are two goals and there are two teams the uppies and the doonies. The uppies are the team that try to get the Ba to the corner a wall at the gable end of a house at the end of main street on junction road where a castle used to be . The doonies try to get the Ba to the harbour anywhere in the sea is a goal for the doonies they usually aim for the basin . The Boys Ba is for players aged fifteen years of age and under . Girls have played in the past but its rare nowadays a womens game was played just after the war but it was abolished after two games it was considered to be far to rough . Once the goal is reached the Ba is kept by one of the players on the winning team and taken home with him as his prize to keep. The player who gets to keep the Ba is the player who the team declare the winner they lift the winner into the air with the Ba or he may run away with it and keep it or give it to someone . At the goals players and supporters shout out names of players who they feel should get to keep the Ba based on many years play for their team . The shouting at the end of each game is the names of players wanting to keep the Ba the struggle or the claim is also known as the fight and is all part of the game . The party afterwards at the winners house is also a part of the game and the Mens Ba party can last several days the Boys Ba party can go till midnight . Players from both sides attend the parties and many bring bottles and carry outs . Many players have won both a Boys and a Mens Ba . When the Ba is thrown to the waiting pack on broad street it may be carried kicked or thrown in any direction it might not be seen again until the winner is hoisted aloft by his teammates displaying the trophy at the end of the game . It might be smuggled away under a jersey or someone might make a run for it up a lane or throw it over a roof . Often there is two or three packs of players when no one is sure where the Ba is . There could be a dummy run or runs in different directions a neep has been used also a horse and a car almost anything can happen . The Ba can go over rooftops and end up in a garden a house or a business its been in the graveyard a coal bunker and in toilets , once it was in a duck pond but thats rare and its mainly a street game . The uppies try to get the Ba up Victoria street and Main street and the doonies try to get the Ba down Albert street and Bridge street . It can go down St Magnus lane onto Junction road down Castle street or Tankerness lane or even up Palace road or the Strynd . It can go anywhere in town on its way to the goals which are a mile apart . The Ba may be stuck up a lane for hours on end and can be thrown from the pack anytime . Often a player emerges from the pack and makes a dash for it running into the crowd or gets knocked down . Players and spectators are sometimes injured and ambulances and stretchers are sometimes called for . The red cross are always at hand to do first aid on the mostly minor injuries . Although fighting does sometimes take place the Ba polices itself and fights are stopped quickly by the players before it gets out of hand . Much emphasis is on safe play and helping injured players often players are shouted to ly off or ly on and sometimes theres shouting and swearing at other players . The midwinter weather is at its darkest and coldest and sometimes the snows a foot deep or the ice can be inches thick . Hundreds of spectators follow the game in the wind and rain and hundreds more when its bright and dry . The game goes on into darkness and it can last for many hours until a goal is reached . The game has a long and deep rooted history there are records of winners of Ba games going back several centuries when the game was formed into its present state . In past times games took place all over Orkney but they have all been abandoned long ago the Kirkwall Ba is the only game that has survived . Once a football game played on the kirk green it evolved into the state of play it now has and its more like rugby than football. Being an uppie or a doonie was once decided by birth depending on which side of the merkat cross you were born . Nowadays its family loyalties or choosing which team to play for deciding at an early age . There are no written rules or referees there is a Ba committee made up of eight past Mens Ba winners four uppies and four doonies who are responsible for the making , displaying and throwing up of the Boys and Mens Ba's each Christmas and New year . John Robertson chairman of the Ba committee has written a book on the history of the Ba entitled between the water and the wall priced at £25.00 . Order your copy now click buy now and pay by paypal first class postage is £5.00 in the UK and delivered free in Kirkwall |
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Click here to hear the Ba song |
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