To the uninitiated, St Columb-on the night before the annual hurl-resembles a ghost town. Shops and windows are shuttered, and the streets are deserted. There is a quiet feeling that reflects a combination of excitement and anxiety that no other town, or its people, can match.

In mid-afternoon, on Shrove Tuesday, a man climbs a step ladder or a lamp-post in the centre of town, holding aloft a small ball of wood coated with silver. He is surrounded by a wild, enthusiastic crowd of men, each jostling to be the first to clasp the ball as it descends from the thrower with the historic words:

Town and country do your best, For this parish I must rest

The hurling has commenced-a combination of kick and rush; push and shove; grab and throw, as the hurlers try to get the ball through the town at all costs to either the town goal a mile out into the country man one side, or the country goal a mile out of town on the other.

Crowds of men, numbered at least in hundreds, perhaps in thousands, engage in a melee that, miraculously, produces no fatalities and very few serious injuries. Sometimes in a matter of minutes, but more usually after some hours, the ball passes through one or other goals and is then brought in triumph

back for the evening ritual of "Drinking the Silver Ball" when the ball is dipped into a mug of the winners favourite beverage. If he's teetotal, it would be a mug of tea, coffee, or squash; if a beer drinker, it would be doused in ale. The mug is then shared among as many players as can get a sip.

1750- John Heath discovered the written rules of the game, under which the hurlers were bound.

1. To hurl Man to Man, and not two to oppose one Man at once.

2. In contending for the Ball, if a Man's body touches the Ground by wrestling, or the like, and he cries "hold" (which is a Word of yielding) and delivers the Ball, he is not to be farther pressed.

3. The Hurler against the Ball must not but hand fast under the Girdle.

4. That he who has the Ball must but only in his Opponent's Breast.

5. That the Hurler must deal no Fore-ball, or throw it to any Partner standing nearer the Goal than himself.

6.In dealing the Ball, if any of the adverse Party can catch it flying, or before it is seized fast by the Party dealing it, the Property of it is thereby transferred to the Catching-party; and so the Assailants become Defendants, and Defendants, Assailants.

From "Heath's Rules" can be found certain similarities with those of Rugby. But, and here the difference between Rugby and St Columb hurling comes in : A breach made in any of these Articles is Motive sufficient for Hurlers going together by the Ears, with their Fists. Nor do any seek to take Revenge but in the same Manner.