WORKINGTON come alive once more over the last week - as Uppies and Downies came back to town for the Platinum Jubilee year.
Hundreds of people took to the streets to watch the game they love so much, after it returned from a two year break caused by coronavirus.
On Good Friday, the series was kicked off by four year old Brodhie Saffil-Kirkpatrick, who threw the ball off the bridge to start the game.
Brodie’s Mam Laura said : “He’s been absolutely chuffed to finally throw the ball off. He’s been really excited all week about this and I’m a proud mam that he’s finally done it.”
The crowds were delighted to be back with hundreds staying throughout the night to see what turned out to be an extremely lively game.
The scrum was lively, with the Uppies taking an initial advantage in the match.
Uppie Elvin Jarvis was confident as the clock hit 8.30pm that the ball would be going up.
However, after a brief moment of uncertainty as to where the ball was word came it had been snuck off and swam down the river.
Aaron Lancaster, 27, hailed the ball at the capstain on Workington's dock after swimming down the river to victory.
Speaking after he hailed the ball, Aaron said: "I feel absolutely delighted... up the Downies."
Despite the Downies' win, it felt like a win for the whole town - with hundreds taking to the streets of Workington to support the ancient tradition.
When Tuesday night came it was all to play for - the Uppies needed to clinch a win to even out the series.
Before the Easter Tuesday game events were held at Tesco in Workington to raise funds for the charity commitee's chosen charity - The Firefighter's Charity.
Players from bothe the Uppies and Downies teams took part in a charity 'Truck pull' which saw them drag a fire engine up Black Path.
Players also displayed previous winners balls outside of the store, collecting donations for charity.
Elvin Jarvis from the charity committee said: "We made £608 from the charity day at Tesco £100 was donated by Tesco this was before we done the engine pull, the charity team would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who donated."
Tuesday's game was kicked off by 9 year old Harry Daglish who followed in a long standing tradition of throwing the Easter Tuesday balls off to kick off the game.
Harry's family have sponsored the Easter Tuesday balls 'since records began.'
The scrum quickly made its way into the beck before moving onto land close to the sports centre.
The game was a lively one with spectators seeing much of the ball throughout the night.
Once again, the Uppies took an early lead with a strong scrum pushing the ball towards the police station - however the Downies fought back throughout and right until the end.
After just over four hours the ball was hailed by Westfield lad Jamie Friel outside of Curwen Hall gates.
Speaking to the Times & Star after the game, the second-time hailer said he was 'absolutely buzzing'.
The wins for both sides means that all will be to play for on Saturday in the final match of the series.
Veteran uppie Joe Clark said: "Absolutely ecstatic. We made hard work of it. There were a lot of tactics going on in the scrum. We levelled the series. It will be an epic game on Saturday."
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