Hallaton and Medbourne's "once in a lifetime event" returns today
The legendary Bottle Kicking contest has been postponed for two years
Last updated 19th Apr 2022
Hallaton and Medbourne Bottle Kicking returned this Easter Monday after two years of Covid-19 restrictions.
The annual contest is a day filled with local history, with parades, band ensembles, bottle decorating and pie throwing in abundance, all before the bottle kicking carnage commences.
Contestants from each village will meet each other in a brutal no-rules match up, with the winners taking bragging rights back home for the year.
For those that haven't witnessed the spectacle before, the game sees players do their best to take barrels - known as bottles - over terrain to a finish point. The best of three bottles wins the day.
A famous festival with lots of tradition
The day steeped in local history has put the two villages on the map before, and has received regular media coverage documenting the bizarre but brilliant nature of the game.
With a festival-like feeling, Hallaton and Medbourne Bottle Kicking joins up both communities for a day of local fun, but you've got to be brave to get stuck in to the actual "battle".
The origins of the Bottle Kicking date back 200 years, while some believe there's an ancient temple buried underneath the grounds of where the Hare Pie is spread.
"when you've got 200 lads in a scrum that crash through a fence..."
Dave Marlow helps organise things, he says they spend up to around £5,000 to make the event possible:
'For anybody that hasn't been to the bottle kicking before, it's definitely a once in a lifetime event that you must see. it may be a bit barbaric in these modern times, but it's a very good spectacle and definitely a young man's game.
'Basically, there's just no rules at all, so it'll go through hedges, over fences across the streams. The only rules there is: no eye-gouging and no weapons.
'We try and limit any damage to fences but it is hard when you've got 200 lads in a scrum, that crash through a fence, but we do try and keep all the fences in tact as best as we can.
'Obviously the more damage that's done to fences the more expense to the committee and money that we have to find. It does cost us between 4 and 5 thousand every year to put the event on, so any sponsorship from any companies is gladly welcome because it is hard to keep it going every year.'