The annual Bottle Kicking event has returned to Leicestershire for another year, complete with bloodied heads, muddy clothes and a triumphant winner holding a keg of ale over a border stream.
Residents of Hallaton and Medbourne, in Leicestershire, have competed to get a wooden keg across each other’s border as part of an Easter Monday tradition.
The annual event, canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid, is said to date back to pagan times.
Bottle-kicking reportedly first started when a local vicar gave the poor residents of Hallaton a pie and ale every Easter Monday, which the residents of Medbourne then took.
Crowds filled the streets, wrestling over old-fashioned barrels sealed with a wax stamp depicting a hare.
The annual Bottle Kicking event has returned to Leicestershire for another year, complete with bloodied heads, muddy clothes and a triumphant winner holding a keg of ale at the bottom of a field
Residents of Hallaton and Medbourne, in Leicestershire, have competed to get a wooden beer keg across each other’s border as part of an Easter Monday tradition
The annual event, canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid, is said to date back to pagan times
Bottle-kicking reportedly first started when a local vicar gave poor Hallaton residents a pie and ale each Easter Monday, which the residents of Medbourne then took away
The day begins with a procession through both villages in which the locals carry a large hare pie and three ‘bottles’ – two filled with beer and a third ‘dummy’ barrel painted red and white and filled with wood.
The pie is blessed by a Hallaton clergyman, before being sliced up and thrown to onlooking crowds to scramble over the food.
In the afternoon, the bottle-kicking begins with no rules apart from “no eye gouging, strangling or use of weapons”, while the organizers strongly insist that they cannot accept any liability for injuries.
Each barrel is thrown into the air three times to signal the start of the game, before residents of each village attempt to get the barrels across their neighbour’s stream – about a mile apart.
At the end of the game, which often lasts more than an hour, the residents retire to the local pubs.
Participants are advised to exercise “extreme caution,” but photos on Monday showed bloodied villagers as many took to the floor to get their hands on the prestigious barrels.
A player suffers a head injury during Leicestershire’s annual bottle spade game
In the afternoon, bottle kicking begins with no rules apart from no ‘eye gouging, strangling or use of weapons’, while organizers insist they cannot accept any liability for injuries
Each barrel is thrown into the air three times to signal the start of the game, before residents of each village attempt to get the barrels across their neighbour’s stream – about a mile apart
At the end of the game, which often lasts more than an hour, the residents retire to the local pubs
Crowds filled the streets and struggled over old-fashioned barrels sealed with a wax seal depicting a hare
The Hallaton hare pie is displayed to the public ahead of the annual bottle kicking game in Leicestershire
The pie is blessed by a Reverend of Hallaton, before being cut up and thrown to onlooking crowds to scramble over the food
Participants are advised to exercise ‘extreme caution’ but photos on Monday showed bloodied villagers as many took to the floor to get their hands on the prestigious barrels
The day begins with a parade through both villages in which the locals carry a large hare pie and three ‘bottles’ – two filled with beer and a third ‘dummy’ barrel painted red and white and filled with wood
One of the ‘bottles’, an old field keg holding about a liter of beer, being filled for the annual bottle kicking game in Leicestershire
The task of moving the barrels at all became increasingly difficult as scrums broke out between the residents.
After the game, competitors and spectators alike return to the Buttercross, a landmark in Hallaton, where individual villagers are recognized for their great effort before an open bottle is passed around for all to drink.
This year marks the second return of the event since the pandemic.
