Uppies and Downies is a game that has been adored by West Cumbrians for centuries.
Best imagined as a mass football game with no rules, it is a fiercely upheld tradition in Workington, where it has been played and reported on since 1775.
Dozens of families in the town have long and winding histories with the game and it has been studied and spectated by people from all over the world.
But what was the game like hundreds of years ago? How much has it changed? Has a woman ever hailed a ball and have three games always been played?
Here at Cumbria Crack, we’ve put together a miniature history of the game to answer some of those questions.
Thanks to English Heritage and Historic England for their permission for the use of information from Hugh Hornby’s Uppies and Downies: The Extraordinary Football Games of Britain.
What is Uppies and Downies and how did it begin?
Uppies and Downies is a mass no-rules game of traditional football.
It’s one of around 25 traditional football games that are still played across Britain – the origins of which trace back to the 12th century.
Games that have been reported on can be traced back to 1775 and they are mostly played on holy days like Easter, Christmas, New Year’s Day or Shrove Tuesday.
Workington is thought to be the biggest town where the mass football game still goes ahead and it also plays the game more often than anywhere else in the UK.
Thousands of people play in the three games that take place over Easter on Good Friday, Easter Tuesday and Easter Saturday.
It sees the town split into two teams, the Uppies, who traditionally have roots in the upper part of the town, and the Downies, who come from the lower end of town.
The games begin with the ball being thrown off at the Cloffocks, where each team must then get the ball to its hailing point.
For the Uppies, they must get it to the gates of Workington Hall, also known as Curwen Hall, while the Downies, must aim for the capstan on Workington Harbour.
To do this, teams clash together in a scrum-like formation that moves in a giant mass back and forth until the ball breaks free, giving players a chance to make a run for it.
The winner is then declared when the ball is hailed by being thrown up into the air three times in a row.
Ball hailers get to keep their ball and are hugely celebrated by spectators and players once the game comes to an end.
Have three games always been played?
Workington’s Uppies and Downies actually started out as just one game.
The Easter Tuesday game was the original match day and for years it was considered the most prestigious.
The Good Friday and Easter Saturday games came around in the mid-19th century and were initially played by boys and apprentices.
The first Good Friday match took place in 1865 and over time the games began to each be considered prestigious in their own right.
The earliest account of the game was recorded by the Cumberland Pacquet in April 1775 – it’s also one of the earliest reports of a football match ever to appear in a British newspaper.
It documented an Easter Tuesday game and described a crowd of around 2,000 with 30 or 40 people at one time in the river.
In its modern history, the game has also been used to raise money for local charities.
What was the game like over 100 years ago?
Uppies and Downies drew in very large crowds in the 19th century.
It was so popular, reports from the time estimated a crowd of 10,000 in 1873 and a crowd of 20,000 people in 1930.
To put that in perspective – the first FA Cup, held in 1872, only drew in a crowd of 3,000 in London.
Vendors would also set up shop on the day and sell oranges and gingerbread at main vantage points like Brow Top.
Other sports would also go ahead on the day like Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling and sometimes the sports would merge.
In 1915, one report said a participant had been ‘cross-buttocked’ in the beck because of the merging sports.
The game remained popular in more recent years after the First World War, when a reduction in hours at the local steelworks meant that two of three shifts were always free to play.
While fashions, hairstyles and day-to-day life have changed drastically since the game’s early days, many of the first reports of Uppies and Downies are eerily similar to the reports we provide today.
Early reports document steam coming off the scrum, players losing clothing, ‘fragrant odours’ and players using hand signals to coax the ball in their direction.
In 1905, one report also complained about the drunken nature of players.
Have people died playing the game?
Workington’s games have always historically been described as ‘rough’ – but no deaths have ever been recorded by any acts of aggression.
Instead, reports have always described the game as good natured in spirit, fair and in good humour.
But four people have died due to drowning while taking part in the game and a plaque to commemorate their memories was erected on the Cloffocks bridge in 2021.
The plaque was organised by the game’s fundraising committee.
Every year before the games begin, the plaque is blessed by a vicar.
In 2024, lifelong player Graeme Willox Dixon died following a medical episode at the Easter Tuesday game.
Do women take part and has a woman ever hailed the ball?
Women have been known to take part in Uppies and Downies.
In 2006, Catherine Malloy, of Salterbeck, became the first woman ever to hail a ball.
Her boyfriend smuggled the ball out from the Cloffocks and asked some fellow Uppies, gathered on Ladies Walk, to sprint it to her at Workington Hall.
How long have people been throwing off the ball?
There is no official preamble or call to arms to begin an Uppies and Downies game.
Instead, the ball is ‘thrown off’ by an individual who turns their back on the waiting teams and throws the ball over their head and high into the air.
It has previously been known as ‘scopping off’ or ‘wanging off’ the ball and in previous years, once the ball has been thrown, the individual was then free to join their team.
These days, the ball is traditionally thrown off by a youngster, who typically comes from a family who have had a long-term close involvement with the game, including members of the Boyd family and the Daglish family.
Has it always been called Uppies and Downies?
Workington is the only place in the UK where the name Uppies and Downies is used.
Other names for the game have included Upper and Lower Town, used in 1775, Uppergate and Priestgate, used in 1784, Up-town and Down-town used in 1849 and Uppey-gyates and Downy-gyates used in 1882.
What about the ball? How is it made and where did the first one come from?
An old Uppie story claims that the first ball was actually an overcooked pudding that was too hard to eat, so it was kicked about by Curwen men.
Today’s balls are made of a tight leather case stuffed with flock and marked with the year and the name of both the match sponsor and the charity chosen to benefit from fundraising associated with the game.
They have varied in weight and size widely, from over four pounds in 1901 to less than two pounds in 1930.
From the late 19th century until 1978 all of the balls were made either by John Ellwood or his son Jimmy.
These days, the balls are all made by Mark Rawlinson, who has been making them since 1979, when he took over from Jimmy Ellwood.
They consistently weigh two pounds each and some balls feature more ornate designs to mark special occasions.
Has the game ever not gone ahead?
Uppies and Downies did not take place in 2020 or 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is believed these are the first years in the games history where all three games did not go ahead.
Alongside the pandemic, the game has survived war and countless other historical events as well as changes made to the town’s layout.
Are there any rules?
There are no rules in Uppies and Downies.
If I can’t go to the games, can I watch them online?
If you can’t make it to the games, you can find an online live commentary of them including video and pictures here on our website.
This year’s Good Friday game will take place on Friday April 3 at 6.30pm.
The Easter Tuesday game will take place on April 7 at 6.30pm and the Easter Saturday game will take place on April 11 at 6.30pm.
The games have been known to last anywhere from 45 minutes to a day in length.
Who has hailed the ball over the years?
We’ve put together a list of all the hailers we could find from the 1800s onwards – thanks to Keith Wallace for helping with this one.
You can see our list here – and we know we’re missing a few so if you know of anyone we’re missing, please email us at [email protected]
