Atherstone Ball Game chairman expects 'good to follow bad' as he places a safe pair hands on town's major claim to worldwide fame

Atherstone's single biggest claim to worldwide fame looks definitely on to a "winner" this year as the town steadies itself for an invasion of day tourists to witness a sporting phenomenon dating back ten centuries.

King Richard the Lionheart was still on the throne when the Atherstone Ball Game made its royal bow for a place at the top of the English 'folklore' league.

A bag of gold was pulled from medieval pillar to post as eventual winners Warwickshire – and losing neighbours Leicestershire – played their first match on Shrovetide 1199.

Fast forward 821 years to Tuesday, February 25 in 2020 and while the event remains close to its original format, locals will note a changing of the guard in terms of an organising top team and the location of the centre circle 'kick-off'.

But the town should have no fear about the future of the ball game under new 'manager' Rob Bernard.

The chairman of a committee of new faces has the no-holds-barred tradition of the game coursing through his veins.

The event, which has only two more like it left in the UK in Ashbourne in Derbyshire and Alnwick in Northumberland, is in the "safest possible hands", according to the 47-year-old.

After all, he joined a cast of thousands as a 13-year-old back in 1986 for his first experience.

And 34 years later he's assumed the mantle of event leader, ably supported by wife Janneen as secretary, Noel Johnston taking over from Rob as chief steward, plus committee member Peter Smith.

In those intervening years Rob enjoyed an initial taste of being involved with a winning team in 1996, and a full part in The Angel's run of six successive team wins just after the turn of the 21st century.

Playing came to an end for Rob after organisers made an appeal following the 2011 game and the next year a new committee was formed, taking over from Harold Taft who had reigned supreme as the ball game's chief for more than 20 years.

"I think I was the only person who actually sent in a letter for that appeal," quipped Rob.

The upshot of the appeal saw the committee headed by Atherstone funeral director David Evans with Rob as the vice chairman and chief steward.

The future of Atherstone's great tradition has been the subject of much debate down the years.

In more recent times – in 1986 – the Shrove Tuesday game literally got out of hand and a public meeting decided to form a ball game committee – taking total responsibility for organising the event.

In 2015, Mr Evans – who stood down as chairman of the committee this year to make way for Rob – warned that the local police were looking into stopping the event because of an outbreak of unacceptable violence.

And as chief steward last year, Rob sounded his own concerns about a level of game aggression that again threatened its very existence.

He warned: "In the past, when things have got out of hand, we've put it out there that the future of the Ball Game is under threat and it calms down a bit the following year.

"But then it comes back again. It is the nature of it."

So what of the likelihood of a repeat in 2020?

"I think we can expect it to be a good game this year," the new chairman told Atherstone Nub News.

"We note that good usually follows bad."

The second big change for the game this year sees Atherstone Conservative Club (the Connie) as the venue and place where the ball is tossed into the waiting crowd from an upstairs balcony.

That will be 3pm on February 25 and performed by what is fast becoming another ball game tradition – a footballer taking centre stage at the start.

This time it's two of them – Dave Bennett and Kirk Stephens – both during their Football League careers finished up playing for Nuneaton Borough.

Bennett has the distinction of scoring an FA Cup final goal – in the 1987 Sky Blues' famous 3-2 win over Spurs – as well as taking man of the match. Stephens, by contrast, had a shorter career through injury but also played for Coventry, Luton and the old Manor Park club as captain and then later manager.

They follow in the footsteps of former Villa manager Brian Little in 1985 and last year and ex-Stoke and England keeper Gordon Banks exactly 25 years ago.

It was a late decision on who would have the honour, Rob admitted. "It was about two weeks ago that we started talking the pair of them."

Footnote: Home-grown TV show host Larry Grayson, who toured the clubs of Atherstone in the 1940s, 50s and 60s with his "look at the muck on 'ere" brand of camp humour before finding fame on Shut That Door and the Generation Game, was probably the most famous balcony celebrity in 1976.