The hurling of Cornwall has little to do with the sport played in Ireland of the same name. It is another variant of different traditions spread across towns in all the British Isles and parts of France, where games in which it is a matter of scoring a goal with a ball endure. It’s a chaotic game, as there is no player limit, with hundreds of people if need be melting and falling over each other in the streets. If you see images from a match of hurling from Cornwall, first you don’t understand anything. Then you discover the logic of this tradition, which could be a legacy of the passage of the Romans through the area. In Cornwall, a region at the south-west tip of England where they say they are not English because they have their own history, this is practiced hurling in different towns, but the best-known event is that of Saint Columb Major, where they play two days: Ash Wednesday and 11 days later. The game always starts at 4.15 pm in the market square, when the winner of the previous game has the honor of launching the ball over the waiting group of people. A small ball made of silver. The game is played by two teams: men born in the town center and those born in houses outside the municipal area. One kilometer from the square, in opposite directions, there are the two gates. If someone manages to leave the silver ball there, their team wins. Now, there is a second way to win: take the ball beyond the limits of the municipal term. For this reason, the hurling of Cornwall can last for hours, with participants running and chasing each other across meadows, fields and streams.
When the game starts, however, there is a tradition of going around the streets of the town for about 30 minutes, with the rivals passing the ball to each other in a friendly way. The ball is allowed to be played by children, who look at it curiously, or it is taken to the nursing home so that people who have played in the past can hold it in their hands again. When both teams understand that they have had enough social life, the revelry begins. There are fights, shoving, and moments when you just see dozens of people on top of each other. Every now and then someone with enough legs can run out chased by the others. But since this race may take place five kilometers from the center, in the middle of a lost forest or in a meadow, it may be that almost no one sees the moment when the game is decided. In fact, the older players and those out of shape only play for the first hour and once the game moves away from the village they go into the pub to bide their time. The neighbors find out who has won when the man who scored the goal or carried the ball beyond the village limits returns to the center, on the shoulders of his companions, singing a song. Whoever wins, by the way, can keep the ball forever with one condition: he must bring a new one on the day of the next match. And since they are silver, they cost around 1,000 euros. So most winners look after the ball for a year and then fly it on Ash Wednesday, when the tradition resumes. One more year
