A brief history

In the remote Northern island of Orkney a game known as “The Ba’” is played in its biggest town – Kirkwall - every Christmas and New Year’s Day. The game can best be described as street football or a cross between football and rugby.

Ball games have been played since Greek and Roman times and perhaps Britain’s obsession with these games developed during the time of Roman occupation. The Orkney game has been played for centuries but its present form dates from around 1850.

The game has few rules; players are divided into two teams with the aim of each team to get the medicine ball to a set “goal”. The teams are known as “Uppies” and “Doonies” these names are derived from the Norse word for path – gata – (the Orkney and Shetland Islands were ruled by the Norse for 500 years - see Up helly aa) thus “up-the-gates” or “down-the-gates”.

You are an Uppie or Doonie depending on which side of the gate you were born (at the other end of the country, you can only claim to be a cockney if you were born within the sound of Bow Bells). These days being an Uppie or Doonie depends on family loyalties. If an incomer to Orkney wishes to play it depends on how you arrived – by air = Uppie, by sea = Doonie – though these rules are not strictly enforced.

The “Ba’” or ball is thrown in the air and the two sides thrash it out - sometimes for hours. The Doonies aim is to reach Kirkwall Bay and the Ba’ must touch the sea water. The Uppies aim is to reach “Mackinson’s Corner” at the Main Street and New Scapa road junction.

As can be imagined the Ba’ is a violent game and Kirkwall can look like a dangerous place during Christmas and New Year. Shop and homeowners fulfill the annual obligation of barricading windows with wooden beams in case a scrum of zealous players happens to burst into their building.

To learn more and view images from the game visit www.bagame.com (the picture above is the famous "Old Man of Hoy" a rock stack that is an Orkney icon).