Michael Fontes - An Elementary Guide to Win Co Fo

Clear as Mud

The teams wear different coloured jerseys and the object of the game is to kick the ball (an ordinary soccer ball) over the end. Try to work out which team is kicking in which direction. This ought not to be difficult unless the players are very incompetent; back passing is allowed but unusual. As in soccer, games have two halves of equal length. In the top games the teams just change ends at half time; they don't break for oranges and encouragement. In the ordinary games the boys stop for a few minutes at halftime to get their breath back, chat to their girlfriends, or fish errant balls out of the river.

Teams may consist of 15,12,10,9, or 6 players. In the first half of the term games are usually 15 - 10 a-side; the 6 a-side version is usually played in the second half of term only - don't ask me why; for reasons historically connected with Boat Club, I expect. Try to work out how many boys there are in each colour: WARNING some teams sometimes have certain players in blue shirts even though the rest of the team may be, for instance, in white - these are the goalkeeper-equivalents; they will probably be at the back of their respective sides.  You ought to be able to tell which team they are playing for by seeing in which direction they usually face.

The game has a language of its own. Try to position yourself near someone who is using this language pretty freely and never forget that he's most unlikely to know what he's talking about; just enjoy what he says as a linguistic exoticism, as you might a wild flower. I shall use the vocabulary of the game progressively and then only for the sake of brevity.

If it's very muddy remember that the mud comes flying through the netting at the side. Spectators often become covered in mud for they can approach very close to the play. This is half the fun of watching a muddy game, but you might like to be mentally and sartorially prepared.

After watching for a few minutes try saying to yourself 'how did this game evolve?' The aim is very simple, to boot the ball over the end. The rules are complicated because they evolved to make achievement of this simple aim intriguingly difficult; each rule was made in response to a perceived need. People who try to learn the rules without learning why each rule was made set themselves a daunting and tedious task. I am going to try to teach you the important rules by explaining why the boys felt they needed them.

Next week - the scoring system

The Scoring System

(you won't enjoy watching unless you understand the scoring system, so here goes - hold on to your hats, boys):

When one side succeeds in getting the ball to go over the other side's goal line and the ref doesn't blow for a foul, the one side has probably scored. If it goes over cleanly (out of the scrum, not touched by a defender, in the middle rather than between the netting and the post holding the ropes) a goal is scored. Goals are worth three points.

If it doesn't go over cleanly a behind is scored. A behind is worth one point.

Behinds can be converted. The conversion is worth a further two points.

So remember, three sorts of score: goal (3), behind (1), conversion (2). A converted behind is worth the same as a goal.

Question: How can I tell a goal from a behind without listening to the boy next to me, who might be wrong?

Answer: By what happens next: if a goal is scored the side which conceded all go off up the field and their goalkeeper-equivalent punts it up the field from behind them. If a behind is scored everyone (on both teams) goes behind the defending side's goal line, except for two or three (the goalkeeper-equivalents) of the attacking side; the goalkeeper-equivalent of the defending side kicks the ball out and the two or three of the attacking side try to kick it back cleanly over the end. If they succeed they have converted the behind, and the game restarts as it would after a goal.

Alternative answer: you can usually tell a goal from a behind by the degree of jubilation demonstrated by the supporters of the attacking side (in the big games they will probably be wearing war-paint in the colours of their side). A goal is a top score and provokes much elation - beating of drums and trumpeting, as in a Handel Coronation Anthem. A behind will be greeted with tension, people wondering if it will be converted. If it is converted then that is the best outcome for the attacking side and so more trumpeting is in order.

If the behind is not converted that is a disappointment for the attacking side, so expect jeers from supporters of the defending side. There is no score and the game continues normally.

Next week- Positions on the pitch

Positions on the Pitch

You have to be very unobservant not to notice that the players adopt positions which resemble those well known in more familiar games. In Winchester Football there are three sorts of player: players in the scrum, players like scrum halves, players like goalkeepers.

Players in the scrum. A scrum is called a hot and the scrum collectively is known as the hot. Players in the hot are known either as men in the hot or hot-men. A hot is the usual way of restarting after a foul or if the ball goes out of the ground. The game is fiercely territorial, so where the hot takes place matters and it pays to have impressively muscled boys in your hot. A dominating side will count on moving closer and closer to the other side's goal line. A strong hot wins the ball for its side when there is a foul or when the ball goes out: a well-organised hot provides a blanket in defence and makes the ball available for its scrum-halves to score in attack

Scrum halves. They are called hotwatches (4 in the 15-a-side version, 2 in 10-a-side, 1 in the 6-a-side).

You can tell hotwatches because they hang around the back of the hot, like scrum halves. They are the eyes and ears of the hot and relay instructions to the hot - usually either 'take it with you' or 'have it out'. You take the ball up the field in the hot when you are in defence, or if you are playing into a strong wind, or if you wish to be irritating, to prevent the other side from scoring; you have it out if you want it bouncing around in the middle of the pitch, so that you can score yourselves. Hotwatches are often short and adroit and Machiavellian: Hitler would have been a hotwatch.

Players like goalkeepers. They are called kicks (3 in the 15-a-side version, 2 in the other versions) and, like goalkeepers, kicks have special privileges about using their hands, privileges which extend over the whole playing surface.  Other players may only touch the ball with their hands when they try to catch it when it comes to them straight off an opponent. Kicks may use their hands to stop the ball, place it on the ground and kick it. Kicks need to be good at catching and punting: Peter Schmeichel and Jonny Wilkinson would be good kicks.

You should now have mastered the scoring system and understand the three different types of position on the pitch.

Next week: the offside rule-why it is necessary and how it works.

The Offside Rule

Think of the game as a kicking game between the goalkeeper-equivalents (the Kicks) on each side, which is probably how it originated. Each side kicks the ball in tum, trying to boot it over their opponents' goal line - rather agreeably called Worms in Winchester Football. If the ball goes straight over worms they score a goal; if it's touched by the defence before it goes over they score a behind. If they don't get it over but it is caught by the other side, the other side in tum try to kick it over the first side's worms. If you catch it cleanly you can punt it (bust it); if you don't catch it you can kick it off the ground.  Think of the game as a sort of tennis played with a football but without nets or rackets.

Now add a lot of other boys who want to join in the fun. They run up the field to try to make life difficult for the opponents' kicks when they catch the ball. Obviously the centre of the pitch frequently needs clearing of these players or the essence of the game will be lost. The offside rule which does this, which clears the space between the kicks, is called behind your side. Wykehamist notions contain many perverse turns of logic and the behind your side rule is a good example: it forces anyone who is in front of his side to get back behind the kicker whenever the ball is played. Each time someone kicks the ball the whole of his side ahead of him are disabled from further participation in the game until they go back to the point (the horizontal across the pitch) at which he played it. You can, however, be played on side by someone on your side playing the ball ahead of you. Effectively this sweeps the centre of the pitch every time the ball is played: anyone behind the kicker is onside; anyone ahead is behind his side. The referee has to make a mental note of where everyone is every time the ball is played: it's one of the things which makes the game such fun to referee.

Note that you remain offside (behind your side) until you've been back to where it was last played by one of your side, or until it's played by one of your side ahead of you. You are NOT played onside by the kicker running up the field beyond you.

Behind your side carries a high tariff penalty - two posts back - like several other of the most important rules (the rule against dribbling (dribble) and the rule against forward passing (tag)).

If you are the sort of person who likes shouting abuse at the ref in soccer matches then the key cries for you are 'behind your side', 'tag' and 'dribble'. If you care about the accuracy of what you say you must wait a little before shouting 'tag' or 'dribble' - they are for a later lesson. I hope you feel confident enough about behind your side to shout it once or twice during a match now. Incidentally, such cries are regarded as poor form when they come from the players and can lead to severe words from referees. But the referees' authority doesn't easily extend beyond the canvas (the open-mesh netting which prevents the ball from going out at the side of the pitch), so spectators often feel less inhibited about expressing their views.

Next week - Tag and Dribble

Tag and Dribble

In Winchester Football territory matters. Good players must know the rules well because breaches of Behind your side, Tag and Dribble take you back two posts. One player breaking these rules often can lose you a match.

I explained Behind your side last week; it should really be called 'In front of your side' because it disallows anyone in front of a kicker from joining in until he's been back to where it was kicked, or until he is played onside by a member of his team kicking the ball from a position ahead of him

Dribble and Tag derive from the need to preserve the game as a simple kicking game. Two boys booting a ball at each other need to establish rules as to what happens when one of them doesn't kick it very well. Winchester Fo0tball is a kicking game, not a dribbling game; the early boys wanted to see inspired kicking of difficult balls, so they insisted that if you kick it a second time when you haven't kicked it hard the first time, Dribble: the whistle goes and there's a hot two posts back. Amusingly the rules specify that the refs should go by intention not results: as long as you tried to kick it as hard as you could the first time you may kick it again - even if you only just nicked the ball: this provokes a good deal of speculation as to true intent, of course, and that is one of the enduringly entertaining parts of the game.

But often the sides consisted of several boys and then the question arose: shouldn't you be able to pass the ball to one of your side? Surely that was one of the interesting elements of Rugby and Soccer? Yes, they decided, you could pass it, but not in a way which allowed you to gain ground, i.e. only back passes are allowed. A red boy plays the ball forward gently - remember he can't play the ball again, for that would be dribble - but what if another red boy runs forward (he's not behind his side: he was behind the first boy when the ball was kicked) and kicks it? That is Tag - hot two posts back. No sort of forward passing is allowed.

That is the essence of these two important rules: the official rules themselves don't say much more about them, but quite a lot follows when you apply these two principles.

If you play the ball forward gently your side can't play it again - for you it would be Dribble, for the rest of your side it would be Tag; what do you do? Answer: you stand behind the ball so that when your opponent plays it you prevent it going past you. In the words of the game you plant it: usually to raise a plant you run fiercely, without regard for ordinary considerations of prudence or for your potential progeny, at a ball which an opponent is about to kick, in order to smother it. You must have brave boys on your team, particularly among the hotwatches, who often need to raise plants. Incidentally raising a plant counts as playing the ball as hard as you could - you can kick it again. The rules reward the fearless.

You may not play a ball which has gone forward off one of your side, but if it goes backwards off him, if he passes 1he ball back to you, for instance, may you kick it freely? Answer: yes, you may kick it, but not freely, not high in the air - five feet is as high as the ball may go. So you may take a great welly at a ball which comes to you off an opponent, but a ball which last touched one of your own side is said to be 'own side', you've got to keep it down.  Amusingly, if you kick it up the refs will not penalise you, unless you score, until the other side asks them to with a shout of 'up'. The rule's application is at the discretion of the other side - this is a most unusual feature of the game. Sorne refs think five feet is higher than other refs, of course, and the crowd can be irritating by shouting 'up' themselves and thereby spoil an important part of the game: if one of your big kickers is going to catch the ball you don't want to claim up and a player who always shouts 'up' is a menace to his side.

That's probably a medium dose for an adult. I'd sit down now with a towel round your head and think of warm summer afternoons.

Next week - Use of the hands

Use of the hands

Winchester Football is a kicking game and a player with a big kick gains lots of territory for you and will score plenty of goals. If you kick the ball in the air, however, you may find that the other side catches it and punts (busts in the argot of the game) it back at you. The game encourages first time kicking and catching, but once the ball has landed or touched the equipment the rules forbid much use of the hands. The founders of the game wanted to see brilliant first-time kicking, so players may only catch and bust a ball which comes to them straight off an opponent, without touching anything on the way - the referee counts, amusingly, as nothing. Dick Massen, when he refereed, because of his comfortable substantial size and the mischievous high spirits of the boys, was often planted: 'I'm just a piece of grass' he would say, amusingly but inaccurately. If the ball hits a piece of grass, or, for instance a red player, most other red players may not touch it with their hands; that would be 'handiwork' - one post back.  Kicks have special privileges: they may stop it with their hands, but may not bust it, merely place it on the ground and take an own side (under five feet) kick. 

You will occasionally see a boy running with the ball in his hands. He may only do so when he has caught it and his opponents try to collar him. They may tackle him, as in Rugby, but not, in the language of the rules, 'violently'. Non-violent Rugby tackles might be considered logical impossibilities, like advancing backwards or shouting quietly, but they are the only tackles the rules allow. Violence, incidentally, carries a three-post penalty, as does cheeking the referee or other kinds of blasphemy.

So, for the most part, players other than kicks may not use their hands unless the ball comes to them directly off an opponent, as it would if they caught a bust by one of the other side.

Next week - Tactics
 

Use of tactics

A kicking game is inevitably dominated by the wind. Even a moderate wind will make a difference of at least three posts to a long bust. On College Canvas, the canvas on Meads, the prevailing wind is from the South, towards College. Most sensible teams play with the wind in the first half because you can score more easily when the ground isn't cut up and when you are feeling energetic. They then try to establish a big lead which they can defend with spoiling tactics - not giving the other side a ball to catch, kicking the ball out (the hot forms a post back from where it went out and if you have a strong hot ... ). A strong hot is allowed to take the ball two posts before it is 'through' - i.e. the ball must be kicked and the hot breaks up. The other side tries to wheel them and to collapse the hot, but if the referees do their job and the dominant hot is disciplined a lot of ground can be gained and a lot of time taken up.

James Pickering, quite a recent Chawkerite, suggested a change of rules to counter the boring tactic of kicking the ball out. He proposed that the other side could opt for a hot on ropes, where it's harder to gain benefit from a strong hot, rather than the conventional hot in the centre of the pitch. If you hear a cry of 'Pickering', that means the team is exercising this option: the hot will be formed on ropes rather than in the middle.

The informed spectator takes careful account of the wind. A strong wind straight up canvas can in VIs make a difference of as much as 30 points a half, so don't assume that the team which leads in the first half is going to win. You must ask yourself at each stage if they have a big enough lead.

In attack you try to 'get the ball out', either of the hot or from ropes, so that it can bounce around the middle of the pitch where you have a good chance of scoring a goal.  In defence you try to take it with you: smother it, always have someone behind it, raise plants, avoid kicking it up the pitch for the other side to have an uninhibited kick (a flier) at it - remember if the ball is not 'own side' a player can kick it as high as he likes. In defence you try to limit your opponents' scores to behinds.

Players must at all stages keep an eye on the score. If the sides are well matched the one playing with the wind should be scoring most. If it's late in the second half and you are into the wind and down by one or two points you must gamble: for instance try kicking it up the pitch, hoping that the other side will miss the easy flier and that you'll get up the other end and score a goal. If you do, of course, you will have to face the other side's bust off - the behind your side rule is suspended for bust offs, incidentally. If they have a kick with a long bust he will, playing with the wind, land it almost on your worms and you'll have desperate defending to do. It's a risk you have to take.