Brown to relive rugby history at Bowhill

Published 25 Sep 2009 14:38 0 Comments

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Rugby star Kelly Brown is set to re-enact a historical sporting moment in the Borders this weekend.

Glasgow Warriors and Scotland back-row forward Brown will be at Bowhill, near Selkirk, tomorrow (Saturday) when the first ever international Clan Scott gathering takes place.

The event, part of Homecoming, will feature the re-enactment of the 1815 Carterhaugh Ba' game, which, some historians believe was a forerunner to the game of rugby.

The original Ba' game was attended by Sir Walter Scott and the Ettrick Shepherd, James Hogg, and lasted some five hours with several hundred players on each side. It preceded by eight years the moment that William Webb Ellis picked up a football and ran with it at Rugby School, and thus created the game of rugby.

Trish Gray, House Manager at Bowhill, the family home for the Duke of Buccleuch, said: "We've been in touch with our local youth rugby club at Selkirk, the Selkirk Rhinos, and they have agreed to co-ordinate the inclusion of other primary school rugby clubs throughout the Borders.

"We'll have about 75 youths on each side and the match will be billed as Selkirkshire v Roxburghshire. We're delighted that Kelly will be joining us and offering a few words of encouragement to the boys before the game starts."

Kelly said: "I'm told the original game was 600-a-side so it must have been some size of pitch! It's good to see the young players of today learning about a historic moment from the past and having a bit of fun at the same time."

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