Cornish Hurling

When I was a teenager we played a game at my school during the lunch hour that we called Hurling. It wasn't anything like Irish hurling. And it wasn't sanctioned by the teachers. 

Helston School was built on a plateau and the playing fields were on two levels, joined by a sloping grass bank. One team was declared Top Team and one Bottom (you never wanted to be Bottom as it put you at a disadvantage). The two teams took up position and a tennis ball was thrown into the air above the bank. The game then became simple - to get the ball into the opponent's goal. Bottom had the groundsman's hut while Top had a spinney of small shrubs outside the Domestic Science rooms. And that was that - no other rules. Whoever had the ball was fair game and injuries were common. One of the most spectacular was when my best mate Huw made a flying leap towards the Top spinney and gashed his leg nastily on a metal post.

Every so often during the game, the teams would form a 'Chariot' - a kind of half scrum with a rider on top and the two Chariots would race up the bank. Little did we realise that what we were emulating, in our youthfully violent way, was the ancient sport of Cornish Hurling (Cornish: Hyrlîan).

No Hurling photos, sadly, but this is me and Huw aged 16

Cornish hurling was once commonplace throughout the county and is considered by many to be Cornwall's national game (along with Cornish wrestling). Inter-parish matches died out towards the end of the 18th century but matches between different sections of the same township continued. 

At St Ives those named Tom, Will and John formed a team to play against those with other names. At Truro a team of married men played against a team of bachelors, and at Helston the men of two particular streets played against the men of the others - our school game may have been based on a folk memory of those earlier years.

It's a rough game - no mistake. The only rule is 'no weapons'. And, in August 1705, a fatality occurred during a hurling match at Camborne. The parish burials register contains the following entry 'William Trevarthen buried in the church. Being disstroid to a hurling with Redruth men at the high dounes the 10th day of August". This is the only recorded death of a player during a hurling match. 

Today, hurling is still an annual event at St Columb Major and St Ives. It's also played every five years at Bodmin as part of the Beating the Bounds ceremony.

The Bodmin game is started by the Mayor of Bodmin throwing a silver ball into a body of water known as the 'Salting Pool'. There are no teams and the hurl follows a set route. The aim is to carry the ball from the Salting Pool via the old A30, along Callywith Road, then through Castle Street, Church Square and Honey Street, to finish at the Turret Clock in Fore Street. The participant carrying the ball when it reaches the turret clock receives a £10 reward from the Mayor. 

The annual hurling matches at St Columb Major are much closer to the ancient game. They are played on Shrove Tuesday and the second Saturday following. The game is violent but good natured and is played on the streets and in the surrounding countryside between two teams of indeterminate number - the Townsmen and Countrymen of the parish. The shops in the town barricade their windows and doors to protect from accidental damage, which sometimes occurs.

The game starts in Market Square with the throw-up of the silver ball - a wooden ball clad in metal -  usually followed by a large scrum. The objective of the game is to control its possession with deliberate passing, throwing, snatching and tackling. Game play in the town normally lasts no longer than one hour. During this period the two teams are irrelevant: townsmen 'deal' the ball to countrymen and vice versa. Play often stops for spectators to touch the ball, said to bring luck or fertility, or slows to allow younger players to participate. After about an hour the ball is hurled towards respective goals that are set about two miles (3 km) apart, at either end of the town. The Guinness Book of Records notes that the Corning hurling pitch at St Columb Major may be the largest in the world as it 'consists of the entire Parish, approximately 17.2 square miles.'

Very often, however, hurlers carry the ball through the roads and fields that surround the town, with the aim of taking the ball across the Parish boundary. In this latter stage of the match the two sides strive for possession, and the actual 'Town against Country' hurling takes place. Sometimes hurls are won by a team effort, but occasionally a single hurler may attain the ball in the town and manage to run all the way to the goal or boundary without being caught by any of the opposition. The 'winner of the ball' (that is, the hurler that goals the ball or carries it over the boundary) is carried on the shoulders of two team-mates back to Market Square, to strains of the hurling song.

For we roll, roll the Silver Ball along 

And we roll, roll the Silver Ball along 

And we roll, roll the Silver Ball along 

And we’ll all chase on behind 

Here he calls up the ball, declaring 'Town Ball' or 'Country Ball', depending on the side to which he belongs. It's all very chaotic, like most traditional 'mob' games (like the Haxey Hood - see here). 

The St Ives game is usually played on the first Monday following February 3rd - so that's today. It all starts off with the mayor’s civic procession for the blessing at St Ia Well near Porthmeor Beach followed by the start of the boisterous hurling of the silver ball when participants attempt to win the ball off each other around the town. Whoever returns the ball to the mayor on the steps of St Ives Guildhall on the stroke of midday receives a silver coin. In the afternoon, pennies are proffered from the balcony by town councillors to the waiting children on the Guildhall forecourt.  

The St Ives game is somewhat less rowdy than the St Columb version and also involves younger people playing the game on the beaches.

The oldest written record of the game was made in 1584 by topographer John Norden who visited Cornwall. He wrote: 'The Cornish-men they are stronge, hardye and nymble, so are their exercises violent, two especially, Wrastling and Hurling, sharpe and seuere actiuties; and in neither of theis doth any Countrye exceede or equall them. The firste is violent, but the seconde is daungerous: The firste is acted in two sortes, by Holdster (as they called it) and by the Coller; the seconde likewise two ways, as Hurling to goales, and Hurling to the Countrye.'

And, as you may know, one of Cornwall's better known ancient sites - the three stone circles known as The Hurlers (Cornish: An Hurlysi) on Bodmin Moor - is named after the sport. Legend has it that the were once men who were turned to stone for hurling on a Sunday. The two isolated stones called 'The Pipers' are said to be the figures of two men who played tunes on a Sunday and suffered the same fate.

So, as a proud Cornishman, I'll welcome the day today with a proud cry of, 'Hyrlîan yw gen gwaré nyi!' (Hurling is our sport!)