Bizarre game brings English town to standstill

The only businesses doing a brisk trade are the pubs, from which locals spill out to watch the start of the game at 2 p.m. local time.

Football greats Brian Clough and Stanley Matthews are other famous names to have been the 'turner-up' over the past 50 years but on Tuesday, the honour was given to Stuart Lees.

He was nominated for the role because of his charity and fund-raising work as well as 30 years' work for the local fire brigade.

He was carried, shoulder-high, through the throng of spectators and players to the plinth and started renditions of Auld Lang Syne and the national anthem - sang loud and proud by everyone in the vicinity. He then launched 2014's event.

"It was unbelievable, seeing a complete car park full of people. It's mind-blowing," Lees told The Associated Press moments later. "Nothing else in the world compares to this - it's a tradition that must never die."

Players from the two teams - the Up'ards and the Down'ards - fight to gain possession of the ball as they move through Ashbourne in what is basically a giant rugby scrum.

The game is self-policed, has only a few loose rules - including no conveying the ball in a vehicle and no play in churchyards - and the competitors don't wear uniforms.

So how do you know who is on who's team? "Born and bred," Leigh says, "you can just tell by the face."

On Tuesday, it took nearly two hours for the swarm of players to move out the car park, through a housing estate to a fire station, into the River Henmore and over the other side.