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Eton field game


The Field Game is one of two codes of football devised and played at Eton College. The other is the Eton Wall Game. The game is like football in some ways – the ball is round, but one size smaller than a standard football, and may not be handled – but the off-side rules – known as 'sneaking' – are more in keeping with rugby. There is also a small scrum or "Bully" of either six or seven a side. Goals can be scored much as in soccer, although there is no goalkeeper. But a team gains more points for scoring a 'rouge'. To score a rouge a player must kick the ball so that it deflects off one of the opposing players, or achieve a charge-down, and then goes beyond the opposition's end of the pitch. The ball is then 'rougeable' and must be touched – although not necessarily to the ground – by an attacking player to complete the rouge for five points. Rouges are similar to tries in that the scoring team then attempts to convert them for two points.

It is the only game at Eton that virtually every boy plays, at least for his first three years in the school, and it occupies prime position in the games programme throughout the Lent Half.

In 1815 Eton College documented its football rules, the first football code to be written down in Britain. In the modern era, referees are first advocated in English public school football games, notably Eton football in 1845.

The positions in the field game are divided into two main groups: The "Bully" and the "Behinds".

Bully

The "Bully" is most aptly compared to the forwards in the game of rugby and consists of, 3 "Corners", 2 "Sideposts", 1 "Post", 1 "Bup" and the "Fly".

Behinds

The 'behinds' are a group of players made up of two 'Shorts' and a 'Long'. The job of the Shorts is to kick the ball over the Bully, and allow players of their own side to run onto the ball, and hopefully to either score a goal or rouge. The opposing Shorts are trying to do the same thing, and so a kicking war often develops between the two teams of Shorts. This can be advantageous for a team with a fitter bully, as it gives them an opportunity to create an off-side "Sneaking", and then win a kick. The Long essentially remains in the goal-mouth, and his job is to kick back any ball which goes over the Shorts, or to defend the goal. He is not like a goalkeeper in football, however, as he cannot use his hands to prevent a goal.


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