The other day, we went for a walk in Winchester, along the river Itchen; there were some playing fields there and a game of what initially appeared to be rugby was in progress.
As we got closer, it turned out to be something entirely different; it was a little difficult to see throught the crowds, but it was being played on a long, narrow pitch with a post-and-rope fence along both of the long edges, the ends were open and there was a tall pole at each corner - there were no discernible goals, just the completely open ends of the pitch.
There were two teams in play, seemingly composed of quite a large number of individuals, perhaps as many as twenty per team. The ball appeared to be a standard round leather football and (I should have paid more attention) I think manual handling was permitted.
OH heck - you know what - I remember a question that seem very much the same as this one, but I don’t recall the damn answer! It was before the new software.
ANd it coudl be a hard one to seach for.
As you were in Winchester, my guess is that it’s almost certainly Winchester College Football. This is a 15 or 6 a-side came played only at Winchester College, one of Englands top public school’s. The only explanation of the game I could find on the net:
