Uppies have claimed a complete victory in the 2025 series of Workington’s no rules mass football game.
Uppies and Downies has been played in the town for generations – and with Uppies winning the Good Friday and Easter Tuesday games, Downies were hoping to salvage some pride.
But it was not to be as thanks to Dan Park, Uppies secured the victory at the Easter Saturday game – the third in the series – which was completed in around two hours.
Once the ball was thrown off the bridge at the Cloffocks, it almost immediately found its way into the former Lonsdale dog track, before coming back out into the beck.
In a tense game, it looked like it was going to be a long one, but suddenly, a fantastic break was made and the Uppies were away to Workington Hall – where they have to hail – or throw the ball in the air three times – to win.
The Downies’ aim is to get it to the harbour.
Then while the ball was in the beck there was tackling between both sides before Brad Hannon threw the ball out of the beck to Dan, who managed to run through the crowds and straight to Workington Hall with it, without interference.
On Good Friday, players from Ashbourne’s version of the game visited Workington to see Uppies and Downies and Easter Saturday’s game had a visit from an Orkney player, who was down tonight to experience the Workington game to tick it off his bucket list.
Alex Findlader, known as Badger, 59, has been playing his version of the game since he was a child.
He is friends with David Nutty Shepherd – who also enjoys visiting the different versions of the game across the country, which is how the pair met.
There’s around 25 traditional football games across the UK – but Workington’s Uppies and Downies is believed to be the biggest.
Orkney’s version of the game is the Kirkwall Ba’ Game.
Alex tells us it’s a game that is unique in ever place you go and that every game tells its own story.
We invited videographer Miles Edwards along to Tuesday’s game and he produced this short film for us:
The Cumbria Crack team would like to thank everyone who makes our coverage possible and has helped us this year.
Our thanks go to Keith Wallace, players Elvin Jarvis – who was a guest reporter during our live coverage this year – Nutty Shepherd and Joe Clark, Miles Edwards, Tom Kay, Mark Regan and Benjamin Rae.
Thank you to everyone who has spoken to us about Uppies & Downies over the years and thanks to everyone who joins us during our live coverage.
If you’d like to look back at what we’ve done, this year and previous years, you can see our stories here: https://bit.ly/3YsPp4E
