Harrow football

Harrow football is a code of football played between two teams of eleven players, each attempting to win by scoring more bases (goals) than their opponent. Harrow Football is played predominantly with the feet, but players may use any part of their body including, in certain circumstances, their hands and arms to propel the ball. The leather ball is shaped like a giant pork pie, about 18 inches in diameter and 12 inches (300 mm) deep. It tends to soak up mud and water and become extremely heavy.

Harrow football is ancestral to association football and played exclusively at Harrow School, both between teams of boys currently at the school and between boys at the school and old boys. The school now also play a small number of exhibition games against non-Harrow or Old Harrovian opposition. This includes games against Eton, Sunningdale Prep School Masters, Mossbourne Academy, Hatch End High School and The John Lyon School.

Two teams of equally numbered players each compete to get a ball (itself known as a football) into the other team's goal, thereby scoring a base. The team which has scored the most bases at the conclusion of the game is the winner; if both teams have an equal number of bases then the game is a draw. Players mainly use their feet to move the ball around, and in general they may use any part of their bodies other than their hands or arms. But they can catch the ball with their hands if it has not touched the ground since it was kicked, and the kick was not a forward pass from a fellow team member.

In typical game play, players attempt to move towards a base through individual control of the ball, such as by dribbling (running with the ball close to their feet), by passing the ball from team-mate to team-mate and by taking shots at the base. Opposition players may try to regain control of the ball by intercepting a pass or through tackling the opponent who controls the ball. Tackling usually means barging a player on the opposing side. Barging must be done with the shoulder and must not be from directly behind the opponent as to hit their back. You are permitted to tackle even if the opponent is not in possession of the ball.

Harrow Football is generally a free-flowing game with the ball in play at all times except when it has left the field of play over a boundary line, or play has been stopped by the referee. When play has been stopped, it recommences with a specified restart (see below).

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