The Eton wall game is a game that originated at and is still played at
Eton College
Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...
. It is played on a strip of ground 5 metres wide and 110 metres long ("The Furrow") next to a slightly curved brick wall ("The Wall") erected in 1717. It is one of two codes of
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
played at Eton, the other being the
Eton field game
The Field Game is one of two codes of football devised and played at Eton College. The other is the Eton Wall Game. The game is like association football in some ways – the ball is round, but one size smaller than a standard football, and may n ...
.
The traditional and most important match of the year is played on
Saint Andrew's Day
Saint Andrew's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Andrew or Andermas, is the feast day of Andrew the Apostle. It is celebrated on 30 November (according to Gregorian calendar) and on 13 December (according to Julian calendar). Saint Andrew is ...
, as the Collegers (
King's Scholar
A King's Scholar is a foundation scholar (elected on the basis of good academic performance and usually qualifying for reduced fees) of one of certain public schools. These include Eton College; The King's School, Canterbury; The King's School ...
s) take on the
Oppidans (the rest of the school). Although College has only 70 boys to pick from, compared to the 1250 or so Oppidans, the Collegers have one distinct advantage: access to the field on which the wall game is played is controlled by a Colleger. Despite this, it is usual for them to allow the Oppidans to use it whenever they wish.
At the annual St Andrew's Day match, the Oppidans climb over the wall, after throwing their caps over in defiance of the Scholars, while the Collegers march down from the far end of College Field, arm-in-arm, towards the near end, where they meet the Oppidans.
The wall game is also played on
Ascension Day
The Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, also called Ascension Day, Ascension Thursday, or sometimes Holy Thursday, commemorates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. It is one of the ecumenical (i.e., shared b ...
, immediately after a 6 a.m. service on the roof of College Chapel. Various
scratch match
A scratch team is a team, usually in sport, brought together on a temporary basis, composed of players who normally play for different sides. A game played between two scratch teams may be called a scratch match.
The earliest instance of the term ...
es are also played throughout the Michaelmas and
Lent
Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Jesus, temptation by Satan, according ...
halves (terms), where boys from different year groups, as well as masters, take part.
History
The wall against which the game is played was constructed in 1717. According to an 1868 article, the Wall Game "used formerly to be played in
playing area with a width oftwenty yards, with the
field rules in use, only with the exception that the ball used frequently to be held against the wall, and the goals were, at one end a door, at the other a tree. However, the distance from the wall where 'the
oundaryline' was made became 'fine by degrees and beautifully less,' and it is now only six yards from the wall".
![Eton College Wall Game](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Eton_College_Wall_Game.jpg)
A possible early reference to the wall game occurs in the anonymously-published reminiscences of Henry John Blake (born 1791). Blake reports that he was "going away with the ball in style towards the goal, a large tree" when he was fouled by an opponent.
Between 1811 and 1822, "
otball was almost confined to the Wall game, and at most forty players, mostly constant", although there were also "occasional trifling games in the open
.e., the Field game rare in interval and rare in players".
![Eton Wall Game (1876)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Eton_Wall_Game_%281876%29.png)
A letter from March 1821 states "there is a wall ... against which they play Foot-ball in the season; indeed they say it is capital weather for it now, but it is not the fashionable game, so nobody dares to propose it."
The Collegers v. Oppidans match was banned in 1827 for ten years after a fight broke out during it. It resumed by 1836.
An article on "Eton games" in the 19 November 1832 issue of the Eton College magazine includes a detailed description of the wall game (called simply "Foot-ball"). It notes that the game was already played "in a space not more than five or six yards wide".
The 29 November 1840 issue of ''Bell's Life in London'' features a description of "the annual match ... between Collegers and Oppidans" played on 24 November 1840:
the Collegers won by seven "shies", with no goal being scored by either side. The article adds that this was "the first time since 1836 that the Oppidans have been beaten".
The rules of the Wall Game were first written down in 1849.
They were subsequently revised in 1862, 1871, and 1953. Eton College archives possess copies of the rules from 1885 and 1933. The 16th revision of the rules was made in 2001.
Scoring
The aim of the game is to move the ball towards the opponents' end of the playing area. In those last few yards of the field is an area called the "calx". In this area a player can earn a "shy" (worth one point) by lifting the ball against the wall with his foot. A teammate then touches the ball with his hand and shouts "Got it!" These two plays must happen within the calx. After this, if the umpire says "Given", the scoring team can attempt a goal (worth a further nine points) by throwing the ball at a designated target (a garden door at one end of the field and a tree at the other end). A player can also score a kicked goal, worth five points, if he kicks the ball out and it hits a goal during the normal course of play.
Play
The main game consists of the two sets of players forming a rugby-style scrummage (called a "Bully") in which neither team may "furk" the ball, which is to hook it backwards (except in Calx, where a different type of Bully called a Calx Bully occurs). The Bully is formed next to the Wall and crabs slowly along the Wall until the ball emerges. Many players, particularly those whose position is actually against the Wall, lose the skin off their elbows, hips and knees. Because of this, players usually wear long sleeves. Players within the Bully shove and push each other, mostly with their bodies but also by placing their fists against the faces of the opposition and attempting to lever them backwards and away from the Wall. Actual punching is not permitted, and grabbing an opponent's shirt ("holding") is also not allowed.
The fastest way to make ground is by kicking the ball upfield and out of play whenever it comes sideways out of the Bully; unlike most types of football, play is restarted opposite where the ball stops after it had gone out, or was touched after it had gone out.
Consequently, the most common tactic revolves around the formation of a 'phalanx'. This consists of a tunnel (coming out from the wall, diagonally forward from the position of the ball) of players from one team who are crouching on hands and feet next to each other. Once the team in possession of the ball has formed a successful phalanx, it attempts to pass the ball down the 'tunnel' using the knees of the players forming it, to a player standing at the end of the phalanx (i.e. furthest away from the Wall), known as Lines, whose job it is to kick the ball upfield. The team not in possession is constantly attempting to disrupt this, and win the ball back.
The game lasts up to 55 minutes, with two halves of 25 minutes each and an additional 5 minutes as half-time break. Many games end 0-0. Goals (worth ten points) are very rare; they occur about once every couple of years, and no goals have been scored in the St Andrew's Day game since 1909. The most recent goal occurred in a match between ‘E Block’ and ‘D Block’ with a member of the ‘E block’ team hitting the door after scoring a shy in March 2017. However, shies (worth 1 point) are scored more frequently.
Organisation
The Wall Game is organised entirely by boys, particularly by the Keepers (captains) of College Wall, Oppidan Wall and Mixed Wall. Famous past players of the Wall Game include
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as ...
, who was Keeper of the College Wall,
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalit ...
and
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as " Supermac", ...
. The First World War flying ace
Arthur Rhys Davids
Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, (26 September 1897 – 27 October 1917) was a British flying ace of the First World War.
Rhys-Davids was born in 1897 to a distinguished family. His father was a professional academic and his mother a prolifi ...
also played, representing College with
Ralph Dominic Gamble in 1915.
Members of the College Wall also annually commemorate the outstanding player and Keeper of the Wall
Logie Leggatt
Logie Colin Leggatt (24 September 1894 – 31 July 1917) was an English sportsman and cricketer who was killed during the First World War.
Life
Leggatt was born on 24 September 1894 at St John's Hill, Bangalore and was educated at Eton College ...
, who was killed in the First World War at the age of 22, making a toast at each year's Christmas Sock Supper with the words ''in piam memoriam L.C.L'' (in affectionate memory of L.C.L). Despite its renown outside the school, only a very small number of the 250 or so boys in each year group ever take part in the sport, unlike the lesser-known but much more widely played
Eton field game
The Field Game is one of two codes of football devised and played at Eton College. The other is the Eton Wall Game. The game is like association football in some ways – the ball is round, but one size smaller than a standard football, and may n ...
.
[
The Eton Wall Game has been played twice by all-female teams.
]
In popular culture
The game was first televised by the BBC in 1948.
The sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
''Green Wing
''Green Wing'' is a British sitcom set in the fictional East Hampton Hospital. It was created by the same team behind the sketch show '' Smack the Pony'' – Channel 4 commissioner Caroline Leddy and producer Victoria Pile – and stars Mark H ...
'' features a fictional game, Guyball (), which parodies the obscurity of public school pastimes such as the Eton wall game. It is introduced by Guy Secretan, who learned the sport at the fictional school Whiteleaf (). The object of the game is to throw balls in a "Topmiler", a wicker basket on top of a leather flying helmet. However, the rules of Guyball are never fully explained and are designed to be as confusing and as difficult to understand as possible. Fans of the show have however created their own rules, and the game was occasionally played 'for real'.
In Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels.
Pratchett's first no ...
's Discworld
''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat ...
series, the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild has a far more sadistic variant of the "Wall Game", and is essentially an extreme hybrid of rock-climbing and dodgeball
Dodgeball is a team sport in which players on two teams try to throw balls and hit opponents, while avoiding being hit themselves. The objective of each team is to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with thrown balls, cat ...
.
In the first of Charlie Higson
Charles Murray Higson (born 3 July 1958) is an English actor, comedian, author and former singer. He has also written and produced for television and is the author of the ''Enemy'' book series, as well as the first five novels in the ''Young Bo ...
's Young Bond
Young may refer to:
* Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents
* Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood
Music
* The Young, an American roc ...
novels, ''SilverFin
''SilverFin'' is the first novel in the Young Bond series that depicts Ian Fleming's superspy James Bond as a teenager in the 1930s. It was written by Charlie Higson and released in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2005 by Puffin Books in conjun ...
'', the young James Bond comes to Eton and learns the rules of the Wall Game.
The game was a subject of the 1987 book, ''The Sports Hall of Shame'', by Bruce Nash
Bruce Mitchell Nash (born August 14, 1947) is an American reality television producer.
Nash first entered reality TV with '' Before They Were Stars''. His credits include the Sci Fi Channel series '' Who Wants to Be a Superhero?'' with Stan Lee; ...
and Allan Zullo
Allan Zullo (born November 23, 1947) is an American non-fiction writer. He is the author or co-author of more than 120 paperbacks for adults and younger readers on a broad range of subjects for general audiences.
A native of Rockford, Illinois, Zu ...
.
The game is mentioned in the novels
''The Bancroft Strategy
''The Bancroft Strategy'' is a spy novel credited to Robert Ludlum, posthumously
Posthumous may refer to:
* Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death
* Posthumous publication – material published after the ...
'',
'' The Cobra'', and
''The IPCRESS File
''The IPCRESS File'' is Len Deighton's first spy novel, published in 1962. The story involves Cold War brainwashing, includes scenes in Lebanon and on an atoll for a United States atomic weapon test, as well as information about Joe One, the ...
''.
See also
* English public school football games
During the early modern era pupils, former pupils and teachers at English public schools developed and wrote down the first codes of football, most notably the Eton College (1815) and Aldenham school (1825) football rules. The best-known of th ...
Bibliography
*
** Reprinted in
*
*
*
*
** Reprinted with some alterations in
*
*
References
External links
Eton College site on the Wall Game
Economist.com article on the game
Official Wall Game Rules
Freinberg, Tony (July 24, 2005) "Just don't call them the Eton Wallflowers"
Video footage of the Wall Game in 1914
Colour video footage of the Wall Game in 1956
{{Football codes
Traditional football
School sport in the United Kingdom
Eton College
Youth sport in England