An 11-year-old girl officially hailed the ball for the Uppies in Easter Tuesday’s Uppies & Downies game in Workington.
Willow Newman-Kelly was handed the privilege – and is possibly the youngest hailer in the modern age – by her dad Declan.
He had smuggled the ball out of the scrum while it was on the Cloffocks.
He put the ball down his trousers and crawled up the bank. Meanwhile, players had lost the ball and a mass search ensued along the treeline.
Declan contacted friends and lined everything up so Willow could hail it.
Willow said it was an amazing experience.
She also is one of a handful of females who have hailed the ball in the traditional no rules mass football game.
It was the second win in the 2026 series for the Uppies – Andy Hunter, 19, of Distington, hailed it for the Uppies on Good Friday.
The game was a quick one for an Easter Tuesday – lasting around three hours.
Willow & Declan join Andy in the Hailers Hall of Fame here (which we think is the most definitive list yet of hailers – thanks to Keith Wallace for generously allowing us to use his research for the excellent Barbarians of Workington book). There are some hailers missing – if you know them, please do tell us so we can add them in!
You can see photos from the Good Friday game here
And we’ve got all you need to know about the game, the players and its history here.
Here’s how the game unfolded on Easter Tuesday and please join us for the final game of 2026 on Saturday – we’ll bring you all the updates as they happen from 6pm.
