The Christmas Day Ba'

Notes from a North Sea Island

It rained heavily overnight and I was beginning to think it was going to be a miserable day for the players. By 9.00am, however, dawn was accompanied by gentle rays of morning sun which hung over the town like a delicate net of the finest gold silk.

Last year there was snow, wonderful crisp air and a luminous sun in a clear blue sky. My best friend and I went out with a flask of mulled wine and watched the Ba’ for about an hour or so.

The Ba’ game has been played in its present form since about 1850, but its elements originated very much earlier. There are records of it occurring going right back to Greek and Roman times. There is believed to have been a French version of the game very similar to the Kirkwall Ba’, but it died out around the turn of the 20^th Century. Today it survives in only a few towns in Scotland and England, such as Jedburgh, Ashbourne and Workington.

There are two teams, the Uppies and the Doonies and each has a fixed goal. The Uppies finish at the wall of a house that stands at the road junction leading out of town. The Doonies have theirs in the harbour basin. If the Doonies win the winner follows the Ba’ into the freezing water.

Originally the decision on which side someone played was determined by where in the town he was born, but today it is often down to where family loyalties lie. Which team incomers, or ferryloopers, play with depends on the route by which they first arrived in the town. If someone came by plane they are an Uppie, if they arrived on the ferry they are a Doonie.

There are actually two games on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The boys’ game begins at 11.00am, while the Men’s’ Ba’ starts at 1.00pm. On both occasions the Ba’ is thrown up next to a cross situated in front of the 3,000 year old St. Magnus Cathedral, known as the Merkat Cross. The task of throwing up the Ba’ is usually undertaken by an older stalwart of the Ba’, or sometimes by a local public figure. Up to two hundred eager pair of hands will be waiting to catch the Ba’ before it disappears into the scrum and then pushed along the street.

The players’ family, friends and supporters throng the streets, line the pavements, hang out of windows of the houses and buildings along the route shouting encouragement all the while and urging their teams to do their best. The men’s’ game can take anything up to six hours and often the Ba’ will become ‘stuck’ in a corner or narrow passage for a very long time, before it is able to break lose from the scrum and give the other team a chance to catch it and coax it towards their own goal.