The Orcadian Features - Infamous 1955 game saw Eric

Infamous 1955 game saw Eric
drive off with the Boys' Ba'
(Story dated: Thursday, December 15, 2005)

Lorraine Shearer catches up with two Ba' winners from 50 years ago and re-lives one of the most controversial games in the event’s history.

For the first time in 50 years, the truth behind the Christmas Day Boys’ Ba' of 1955 has been documented by the man who knows what really happened — the winner.

Eric Kemp was just 14, and in his first ever Ba', when he snatched the trophy to victory - much to the dismay of many Doonies, and, surprisingly, fellow Uppies.

It was also the first time a car had been used to ferry the trophy to the Uppie goal.

Generally, the Ba' has only one rule, that there are no rules, but on this particular day, many felt that unwritten agreements had been broken.

Fifty years on, and Eric, also a winner of the Men’s Christmas Ba' in 1974, has told The Orcadian of the guilt he has felt over the years!

“I must have been the only person in Orkney ever to walk into the Ba' for the first time and walk away with it,” he said.

Eric stayed at Aden Cottage, near Highland Park Distillery, and wasn't regarded as being a “toonie”. Shortly, before the event of 1955, his family moved to Hatston.

“At the time, as boys, we played the Ba' at school with a tennis ball. My brother Brian, who was 15 at the time, and I decided to enter that year.”

The Boys’ Ba' was thrown up by Andrew Manson, at 10am, to a weighty Doonie crowd — in spite of the large number of boys living in new houses above the Mercat Cross.

It had been predicted for a while that the Doonies wouldn't be able to compete with the added competition from the new houses.

The Doonies brought the game down to Laing Street without any difficulty, before the Uppies brought in a tactical saving movement by getting it up Laing Street and along to near the entrance to Copland’s Lane, where there was a check in the Strynd.

Once again, the game turned down street, this time getting as far as Nicol Spence’s shop (now Northern and Western Isles Energy Efficiency Advice Centre) when again the Uppies’ tactics scored a success.

The ba’, taken by Arthur Borwick, went up St Olaf’s Wynd at high speed, and was passed to Eric, who made a rapid getaway up Willow Road, finally being picked up by a car driven by Tom Sclater.

Eric picks up the story: “I was running along with Arthur Borwick, he was a young lad as well at the time. We headed up Laing Street, by the old library, and crossed the road in Willow Road, kicking the ba’.”

Once Eric reached the Willows shop, he picked up the ba’ and continued his run up White Street.

“This peedie Austin car arrived and the door flew open. This was the late Tom Sclater. I threw myself in the front with the ba’. He turned around in a circle and headed down the Clay Loan and in along Laverock Road.

“He stopped at Manse Road and said: ‘There you go, now run down and touch the wall’.”

Eric did as instructed, but there was nobody else there.

“I didn't think for one minute that I was going to win it. This was the first time a car has ever been used in the Ba’. I must have waited for about 20 minutes.”

A chap, who worked for John T. Flett, the butchers, stopped and asked what Eric was doing waiting there, telling him to “get home with the ba’”.

He jumped in the man’s vehicle and they set off for Hatston. But they didn't get very far.

“As we approached you could see the house was mobbed with folk. They had come out to get the ba’ off me. My mother didn't know what was going on, there were folk on the roof trying to get in through the windows.”

They about-turned and headed back into the town, when they met Tom Sclater again and Eric switched back into the Austin.

“We headed out to Scapa and someone else waved us down. It was Norman Sinclair, the photographer. He got a photo of me with the ba’ out at Scapa.”

They set off again to a house belonging to Charlie Robertson, where they were invited in for a dram.

“I left the ba’ there,” Eric continued. “Tom took me back home and by this time everyone had gone. I mind I went out to the pictures that night and there were folk there saying ‘that’s the peedie bugger that ran off with the ba’.”

About midnight that same day, there was a knock on the Kemp house door.

“This was Tom Sclater with the boys’ ba’.”

The Ba’ had lasted one hour and 30 minutes, and despite strong protests from the Doonies about the use of the car, Eric kept the trophy.

Tommy lifted aloft as Doonies took the honours

Packs gathered on the familiar patch in front of the Kirk green, nervously awaiting battle, on a dry, but cold Christmas Day, 50 years ago.

It took the Doonie men three hours and ten minutes of dour, hard struggle to get the first Kirkwall ba’ of 1955 from Broad Street – where it was thrown up by Mrs Tom Firth, Colwyn – to the dark icy waters of the Basin.

The tale was something the same as for the Boys’ Ba’ earlier in the day, but the ending was very different as it went up by a rather devious route.

Thirty-seven-year-old Tommy Shearer, a weaver, was hoisted aloft as victor of the men’s event.

Tommy is now 87 and a resident in the new Dounby care home with his wife Barbara.

The Orcadian reported on the Men’s Ba as the events unfolded.

The Doonies enjoyed 180 minutes of steady progression, with only one slight check just below Laing Street when the Uppies managed to regain a few yards for a few minutes.

The Doonies had the weight and strength that year, but the result remained in doubt right to the very end owing to the tactics of the Uppies.

According to the report: “Still, weight told in the end, although there was one strong attempt to do a smuggle with the Basin little more than thirty yards away.

“This was during a momentary hold-up at the space leading into Messrs Flett and Sons Stores (now Anchor Buildings). The ba’ appears to have been right out of the main group of players, but, owing to the narrow street and the huge crowd, the Uppies, who at this time had possession, were unable to get it away.”

For the most part, it was said to be a good-natured Ba’, which similar to this year’s, went ahead on Boxing Day, Christmas Day having fallen on a Sunday.

“The thin sunshine was slanting across Broad Street as, sharp at 1pm, the ba came sailing over from the Mercat Cross plinth. There were rather more players than usual for a Christmas Day waiting for it, and soon it disappeared into the struggling mass of men huddled up against the parapet wall,” the report in The Orcadian goes on.

“It stayed here for a few minutes, edging gradually down, and then lurched across the street, to fetch up with a thump at Kemp’s jewellers shop (in Broad Street).

“Gradually it moved down, pausing at the entrance to Messrs T.P.& J. Low’s courtyard and then the Doonies steered it safely across the peril of Castle Street and into the narrow confines of Albert Street.”

As far as strength and weight were concerned it was the Doonies Ba’ - but always with the threat of a smuggle.

“Even after the final attempt to smuggle had failed, the Uppies never gave in, and the game emerged into the open space in front of the Kirkwall Hotel, still being hotly contested.

“By this time is was getting dark, and the moon had risen, to throw a cold light over the scene.

“Then, on came the street lights, and there was a brief struggle at the steps leading down into the water, a splash, and a shout of ‘she’s in’ from the crowd, several hundred strong, who were craning their necks, peering into the water to see the final act.”

The report went on: “Then came some splashing, and it was obvious that several people were in the Basin. Soon after, Tom Shearer, weaver, Firth, was seen carried shoulder high by his supporters as the winner of the ba’, though this did not appear to meet with universal approval, and there was another brief, though strenuous, skirmish at the top of the steps, but he retained possession of the coveted award.

“Generally speaking, little damage appears to have been caused, the chief sufferers being Drever & Heddle, solicitors, whose outside wall and railings were pushed over by the milling crowd.”