The Chiddingstone Real Football charitable event is back this year. The match is held on Good Friday which this year falls on April 15th. For the uninitiated real football has medieval origins and Chiddingstone’ s Real Football was inspired by Ashbourne Shrovetide Football, a game that’s been played in Derbyshire since at least 1667. The Castle Crusaders and The Rock Inn Rollers teams of at least 100 – 150 players compete using a mixture of football and rugby over fields, rivers and through woodland. The aim is to reach their respective goals 1 mile apart situated outside The Castle Inn in Chiddingstone and The Rock Inn in Chiddingstone Hoath.
The Boyes family has strong connections with both these old English Eden Valley pubs along with the The Kentish Horse (Markbeech) – Kate and Dan’s grandparents, great aunt and great uncle ran the three in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
It’s not a game for the faint hearted! It’s a full contact sport played over 4 hours, it can be rough and muddy with few rules. There’s a perimeter road around the “pitch” which forms the boundary for the field of play, but players cannot cross the boundary, go onto private property with the ball, hide the ball, or smuggle it by wheel, four legs, or any other imaginative way not involving their own two feet.
This year the kick-off is at the original Rabbit Rock, Chiddingstone Village at 2pm, Good Friday. To find out more about the event, visit the website www.chiddingstonerealfootball.co.uk or keep up to date via the official Facebook page @ChiddRealFootball. The 2022 chosen charities are Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance, Mind West Kent and Help For Heroes. See you all there!
