|Flipping good fun|
|Around the Academy:
For hundreds of years one of the maddest versions of football was popular across Britain's towns and cities.
Shrovetide football was its name, but it was probably actually more like rugby.
Team selection was based on where they lived and the aim was to get hold of the ball and get it back to the town. Simple!
And you could do that by any way you fancied! The rule book would have been the shortest book in the world.
When a player got the ball, they could be tripped or even hacked down with a kick to the shins.
But enough was enough! They were clearly having too much fun because the English Kings showed the sport the red card!
They believed it took interest away from the military sport of archery. And that was that.
For a little while anyway. However, the desire for 'balls' over 'bulls' soon proved too much.