ANCIENT FOOTBALL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21876, 11 August 1934, Page 1 (Supplement)

ANCIENT FOOTBALL

BY MATANGA

FROM HISTORY'S SIDELINE

A deal of history lies behind the visit of our All Blacks to Australia. No doubt they regard themselves as in the good succession of New Zealand teams of yesteryear, travelling abroad, but there is much more to be told. The full story covers long centuries. Wo got our football from Britain. Where did Britain get it? There, too, it was an importation, and, as with us, it was destined to change after arrival. That is the way with immigrants, whether of flesh and blood or ideas.

11l tlio years that lie fat behind, there was football of a sort. The Greeks had their " episkuros," which, on the authority of Smith's " Antiquities," was "the game of football, played in much the same way as with us, by a great number of persons divided into two parties opposed to one another/' The Romans apparently brought this game to British shores. It was not then, you may be sure, a game for ladies. Indeed, even in years much nearer to us than that Roman invasion without which English historians would seem quite unable to get on, it was hardly a game for gentlemen. It was not reduced to any three-two-three scrum or any other formation. Of backs it had none. There were no onlookers worth mentioning. _As a rule, whole districts were divided into teams; the days of fifteen-a-side and so on were not in sight. The ball was a thin excuse for a rough-and-tumble in which attention to opponents was the first and almost only rule. As an exposition of football of any code we know, it was hardly a brilliant success. But. in a real way it was football. The idea of a Greek origin for the game ought, perhaps, to be taken with a grain of salt, although it is not wholly unbelievable. Football, as a matter of fact, lias seen many changes in its long life, not only in rules < governing play, which some seem to think too sacred to touch, but in such things as the size and material of the ball, the extent of tho playing field, the number of playfcrs, and even the manner of their dress. We have come a long way when there now is laid down a law against " dangerous projections"—buckles, rings, and so on. to say nothing of the - maximum and Vninimum measurements of studs, only of leather, on the boot-soles. Many Changes It is notable that the " episkuros" of the Greeks was enjoyed by " a great number of persons, divided into two parties." That may strike us nowadays as strange, so accustomed are we to Rugby fifteen-a-side, Soccer eleven-a-side, and seven-a-side brief tussles. Yet—how easily we forget!—it is not so long ago that the same thing obtained in England; every available man was pressed into a match. ' As for tho notion that Rugby is a game to be kept in tho form in which it was played at Rugby public school, that is no more than a pleasant fancy. The game, as a matter of plain fact, has changed immensely, even at Rugby. Read again your "Tom Brown's Schooldays," remembering that the school is Rugby, and compare the football it so vividly describes with the Rugby game of to-day. In particular, note the wholesale way in which for certain games sides were made up. When the game came to New Zealand, about 1853, that was the practice, and it was not until the 'eighties that, save for what were called " public matches," tho number of players was limited. Changes have taken place in the size of the playing field. It is now but twothirds the length it was fifty years ago, and earlier than that, it might be measured in miles. So with the ball. The ball of the Romans was apparently an inflated one, but that ball is more probably tho sire of basketball than football, as the game (follis) was played by striking the ball with the hand. " Kicking-Gamp "

To come down to times less ancient, the ball used in Suffolk at " campball," which was clearly a form of football, was about the size of a cricket ball, a more or less solid thing, and was carried, not kicked. The same game, however, with a larger ball, was significantly called " kicking-camp," and if played with shod feet " savagecamp." Nobody can doubt that these varieties were real football.

There is nothing so good in this world that it cannot be made better, and nothing can remain good without trying to make it better. To despise innovation is to lose even the good in tho old. " Soccer " of to-day is not the game as it came from Harrow. When th 9 various " codes " are discussed, this matter of history is given too little weight, and it is much tho same when amendments to rules are debated. It is far from conclusive to say, " But we didn't do that," or " That is not how the rules read." Rather a shock would be given by the sudden entry of an ancient " kickingcamp " man to a football meeting of tc-day. Ho would be himself utterly amazed, of course, at our game, in any code, but there would be equal amazement at what he would have to say about his own. And yet, by all the rights of things, he could make irrefutable claim to being a footballer. So tho football of long ago, left now far behind, was a melee enjoyed by a limitless number of men, using a ball very unlike what is now used. Leather, by the way, was soon found to be a useful cover for the pig's bladder, blown " great and thin " once upon a time by Devon men. How else could the bladder survive tho thwacks and kicks and wrenchings it got in fierce tussles to goal it? Leather filled with hay or bran or shavings became tho obvious thing at length, and remained so until the game so altered as to bring the inflated ball back to favour. Shrove Tuesday Battles " One ball of leather called a football " was a Chester antiquary's description of the shoemakers' gift for the grim Shrove Tuesday battles that raged over miles and engaged the wholo male populace. Tough leather, you may bo sure, for as " beg pardons " were not in order, strange things were apt to happen to the ball as well as tho players. The mention of Shrove Tuesday is important in the annals of football. It became the great day for the matches that were played by rival villages or by sides in a town. In the latter case the playing field took in several streets, and windows were barricaded and women kept indoors. Tho married men sometimes played the single; trado was of ton pitted against trade; and every man that could be got was put in tho battle-front. Hero is an authentic old record of Chester. "It had been the custom, time out of mind, for the shoemakers yearly on Shrove Tuesday to deliver to tho drapers, in the presence of tho Mayor of Chester at the cross on the Hodehee, one ball of leather called a football, of tho value of three shillings and fourpence, or above, to play at from thence to the Common Hall of tho said city;" which practice was productive of much inconvenience. You can imagine the assaults on property as well as person. Here is a bit of' old poetry about the beauties of football then—

Brissit brawnis and broken banin; Stryf, discorde, and waistie wanis; Cruikit in eld, syn halt witliall; Thir ar the bewtcis of the fute ball

"Wanis" is dwellings,' the rest, with less difficulty, you can follow.