Custom
Atherstone Ball Game
Grab the ball and hold on.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Crowd surging along a high street
- Legend from
- Atherstone tradition
- Tone
- Rowdy
Two hours, one ball, a whole street.
Every Shrove Tuesday a big leather ball is thrown into the crowd on Long Street and fought over for two hours. Birmingham Live says it honours a game played in 1199 between Leicestershire and Warwickshire with a bag of gold. The 826th game, on 17 February 2026, had joint winners, James Bernard and Kieran Marshal.