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Book Description

TAKE A LOOK INSIDE

THE BOOK IN BRIEF:

On December 4, 1815, 750 ba’ players came together in a mighty contest on the field of Carterhaugh, near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders, for ‘a Great Foot-Ball Match’. On December 4, 2015, two bands of dedicated ba’ players descended on Carterhaugh to celebrate the bicentenary of the match by joining battle in another no-holds-barred contest.

For anyone interested in the true origins of the game of rugby in the centuries-old mass ba’ games of the Scottish Borders and the North of England – still alive and kicking to this day – here are tales wonderfully told by historians and players of the game.

Cracked crowns, furious duckings, acts of never-to-be-forgotten heroism and unforgivable betrayal – Ian W Landles relives the dramas of the original 1815 Carterhaugh Ba’ match, recalls Sir Walter Scott’s pivotal role in organising it, and in the process rewrites the early history of rugby.

The late Hugh Hornby describes the enduring appeal of mass football games today and Billy Gillies gives a blow-by-blow account of the 2015 re-enactment and explains why the Border ba’ game is absolutely not just a game!

This book tells a story which has waited two centuries to be told.

Carterhaugh Ba’ was published in memory of Hugh Hornby, museum curator, historian and ba’ player 1970–2021.

CONTENTS

• Foreword
  Richard, Duke of Buccleuch
• Letter from the Edinburgh Borderers
  Rodger Thom
• Carterhaugh Ba’: The birth of rugby?
  Ian W Landles
• Two special occasions
  Hugh Hornby
• The Border Ba’: Efter A’ It’s Only A Game
  Billy Gillies
• The Big Day
  Brian Renwick
• A Dream Come True
  Billy Gillies
• A letter from Workington
  Ian ‘Tut’ Johnson and Joe Clark
• Afterword 
  Linda Lawson of the Bill McLaren Foundation
  
   

SONGS, POEMS AND LETTERS

• ‘For the Furtherance of Fun’
  Letters to the 4th Duke of Buccleuch from Sir Walter Scott and Dr Ebenezer Clarkson on plans for the ‘Great Foot-Ball Match’
• The Ettricke Garland
  Two rabble-rousing songs by Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd
• The Fir and the Heather, Or, the Souter and the Shepherd
  A song attributed to the Rev. John Marriott
• Carterhaugh Ba’
  Wearing a sprig of fir in his bonnet, a Hawick ba’ player marches off to Selkirk
• Selkirk’s Burgess Cup
  Sir Walter Scott designs a silver trophy
• The Blast of Wind
  A song by Charles, 4th Duke of Buccleuch
   
• The Bicentenary Players
  The Border and Workington teams
• A Tribute to Hugh Hornby
  Billy Gillies on a ba’-playing friend and chronicler of the mass football games of Britain
• Credits and Contributors

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS

Callum Bennetts / Maverick Photo Agency >>
Walter Dalkeith  >>
Lesley Fraser / ILF Imaging >>
James Glossop >>
Andrea Jones / Garden Exposures Photo Library >>
Dougie Johnston Photography >>
Eric McCowat >>
Jeff J Mitchell >>
Mark Runnacles >>
Phoenix Photography Scotland >>
Fritz von der Schulenburg >>

MUSEUMS AND ARCHIVES

The Abbotsford Trust >>
The Buccleuch Collection >>
Dundee Art Galleries and Museums (Bridgeman Images) >>
FIFA World Football Museum, Zurich >>
Peter Holme 
The Hornby family
Ian Lowes collection 
Jedforest Historical Society >>
National Galleries of Scotland >>

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