THE BA' WEBSITE Welcome
to Magnus and Charles Tait's archive of the Ba' Game. New
Year 2012 Men's Ba' played on 2nd January
Ba entering the scrum
Roy Foubister Uppie winner New Year 2012 and family The
New Year 2012 Mens' Ba' was played on a fine afternoon, in sunshine
and without much rain. Large squads of uppies and doonies keenly
awaited the throwup. The Ba' bounced a couple of times before disappearing
into the scrum. Both sides put in much entusiastic play, and the
uppies soon managed to push the pack to the Museum, but were repulsed
by the doonies, who were clearly keen to win and benefitting from
a coterie of elder players. There was much surging and often loose play, including several good breaks, each of which was stopped by the vast and close crowd of spectators. Eventually a break took the game onto the Kirk Green where the scrum surrounded one of the trees. It was obvious that the doonies were planning something, and around 15:00 doonie Fraser Anderson broke free and into the kirkyard. This was foiled by several uppies who ran via Palace Road, the Keelies and the Willows to near Kirkwall Grammar School. Meanwhile players and spectators rushed to the harbour before general word was that it had gone up. The rumour was that motorised transport has spirited the trophy to the corner. This is of course not the first time that such methods have been used. Uppie Roy Foubister was soon raised with the Ba' to become the New Year 2012 Mens' Ba' winner at about 15:30. Apart from the somewhat unconvential struggle abruprly ending the game it was a sprited performance by both sides which the doonies' desire for the water obvious. The many surges and breaks on Broad Street made much exciting play to watch. Christmas
2011 Men's Ba' played on 26th December
Erlend Tait throwing up the Ba
After being stuck in a lane near the site of the Phoenix the uppies rumbled the scrum to the Catholic Church, where the doonies made an excellent, but futile, break. The game was over by 19:00, one of the most closely fought and exciting for some time.
James Linklater Uppie winner with his father Article on the Kirkwall Ba' Game from the Orkney Guide Book, 3rd edition
The Ba' is played every Christmas and New Year's Day in Kirkwall,
Orkney. This traditional game of mass football is played in the
streets of the town between the Uppies and the Doonies. For
more details about the history of the game click here. Charles
Tait has been covering Ba' games online since Christmas 1997 and
photographically since New Year 1977. Images and reports from this
season below will be available to view after the games. The 2007
Mens' New Year game was the 60th to be covered by Charles Tait.
To see the full
list of games covered click here.
The forthcoming book,"The Ba' - Uppies v Doonies" will
have a large selection of images from all of these games.
ll
of the images on this site are available as prints - to order please
quote the number on the left of the caption of the form X2000-1234.
Orders may be placed by email, phone or fax. The standard size is
5x7in, although other sizes are available. Images are also available
for reproduction - please quote year (e.g. NY2000) and number or
caption. |