THE disaster facing the farming industry has resulted in many sporting events being cancelled but not Sedgefield village's main "sporting" event of the calendar - the Shrove Tuesday ball game.

It was "business as usual" as mayhem was let loose in the village centre as supporters of the game fought long and hard for just a fleeting kick or touch of the small leather ball, to be able to relate to their families and friends how they took part in The Game.

With its origins lost in time but believed to be about 1,000 years ago, Tuesday's game "allayed off" as St Edmund's church clock showed 1pm. Performing the traditional passing of the ball three times through the village green bull-ring was town councillor and prospective MP, Coun John Robinson, this year's honoured guest.

After the battle raged around the village and the ball appropriately vanished just as the young children from Hardwick school were coming out of their lessons in the temporary parish hall classrooms, the game again centred around the bull-ring and villager Mr John Musgrave claimed victory as he passed the ball once again through the ring.

The mayor of Sedgefield, Coun Maxine Robinson, expressed her pleasure at the "trouble-free" game and said it was wonderful that the centuries-old tradition was being continued.

She pointed out that the game was very much restricted to villagers and that was apparently one of the reasons that, despite the foot and mouth problems, it had gone ahead.