When Was the Last Ba' Game?

The last YHS blog discussed two photographs in our archives showing preparations in Kirk Yetholm for the annual Fasterns E'en ba' game. We have no images of a game in progress - the painting above is by Alexander Carse, dated 1818, and shows the famous and still active game played in Jedburgh. Yetholm's game would have been much the same. By all accounts, such events were inevitably very rough and rowdy.

Both images discussed in the June blog were taken in 1912. But when did the tradition end? The question was put to the Society by John Messner, who is currently writing a book on the game as it is/was played all across the British Isles. Our photographs show that it was still very much alive in 1912.  Newspaper records show that the Bowmontside Games took place as usual a couple of years later in March 1914. However, in the summer of that year Britain declared war on Germany - the First World War had begun - and the games were abandoned for the next five years.

The games were revived in 1920, as the following newspaper cutting, from the Southern Reporter  (19th February 1920) , shows:

Although the ba' game itself may have been a chaotic affair, the 'Bowmontside Games', to which it acted as a grand finale, was a carefully organised event. Nineteenth century newspaper accounts show that there was a properly constituted committee which put in a lot of work to make sure the event went smoothly. The Kelso Chronicle of the 18th March 1921 records a meal at the White Swan in which Mr John Hogg was presented with a walking stick for his 25 years service as committee secretary. The presentation was made by James Turnbull, shoemaker, the oldest member of the committee, Mr Hogg is praised for his 'supreme effort' in snatching 'this "relic from the past" ... from the verge of bankruptcy'. James Turnbull, who apparently had made the Town Yetholm ball for about 50 years died in February 1923, aged 76.

The names of the committee are given in a very full and enthusiastic report of the games (shown more fully at the end of the last blog) in the Kelso Chronicle of 3rd March 1922:

However, the games don't seem to have survived very much longer. So far, the last reporting sighting of the Yetholm Fastern E'en ba' game dates from 1925. In that year the Southern Reporter (5th March) tells us that 'the weather was fine, but a cold wind prevailed, and this no doubt accounted for the moderate attendance, which however witnessed some keen and interesting events'. The winners of the various racing, jumping and wrestling events are then listed. The report ends:

There is at least one further reference, two years later, to the Bowmontside Games. The Edinburgh Evening News of 3rd March 1927 records prizewinners from the Bowmontside Games of that year -  however it doesn't mention the ba' game. It may well have taken place at that date, but the report is relatively brief. The ba' game of 1925 marks, then, the last reported sighting of the traditional rough and rowdy Yetholm game - unless further rummaging in the archives turns up a later explicit reference.

In the early 1960s an attempt was made to revive the game. The Edinburgh Evening News (20th March 1961) announced these plans, noting that 'it is over 30 years' since the game was  played - it would seem there was a vague local memory of it last occurring in the late 1920s:

Why did this 'relic from the past' fade into oblivion?

Newspaper evidence suggests that the activities which characterised the Bowmontside Games were absorbed into the Yetholm 'Shepherds Show', which took place in October every year. It is noticable that nineteenth century newpaper reports of the October 'Shepherds Show' Show very much emphasize the various competitions for sheep (and sheep dogs). Gradually there are references to an 'Industrial Section' (with an initial focus on butter making). In the period before the First World War there are occassional references to sports, but nothing comparable to the athletic events which characterised the Bowmontside Games. The Southern Reporter (29th October 1903), for example, lists the following 'Sports' at the Shepherds Show - Best Groomed Horse, Horse Jumping, Pony Race, Tradesmans Horse Race, One Mile Walking Race, One & Half Mile Cycle Race*. By the late 1920s, however, there are increasing references to running races, wrestling, quoits, jumping (and a regular pillow fight!) taking place at the Shepherds Show.

It is noticable that lists of members of the Sports Committee at Yetholm Shepherds Show in the 1920s refers to several of the same individuals who were also on the Bowmontside Games committee. The Berwickshire News & General Advertiser of 10th October 1922, for example, includes the names of Alex Lillie,  John Hogg, James Reid and William Stenhouse as being involved in organising sports at the October show - all of whom are also listed as on the organising committee for the Bowmontside Games of that year (see cutting above). It would seem, then, that at some point in the late 1920s the Bowmontside Games committee decided to amalgamate with the Shepherds Show in October. Athletic activities continued, but at that point the venerable ba' game - which was traditionally associated with Fasterns E'en (Shrove Tuesday) in February/March - was inevitably dropped.

* More on these horse races in the next blog-post.