The annual Cammag match on St Stephen’s Day saw the north prevail 2-0 winners over the south in St John’s.

The highly anticipated match was a game of three halves featuring an unlimited number of players wielding a variety of home-made sticks.

This year’s contest saw a large number of participants and spectators alike, as the north and the south battled it out for the yearly bragging rights.

John ‘Dog’ Callister, the captain of the north team, said: ‘This year saw the most players on each side. We moved the goals back 10 yards in the first third of the game to give us more room.

‘The north won 2-0, with northerner James Franklin getting on the scoresheet.

‘Someone taking part said to me that it is very competitive, and I gave him a Bill Shankly quote - it’s “more important than life itself”.

‘I also think there was by far the most spectators that I have ever seen.

‘They were very partisan and vocal too!’

John ‘Dog’ has been playing Cammag since the 1970s. He said: ‘“Big” John Kaneen was the main organiser in those days, both playing a bit and also officiating. He always brought the ball and goal posts, a role now occupied by Dave Fisher.

‘I play, my son Juan plays and his son Harvey plays - three generations of us. The two younger Callisters, in my footballing terminology, “do a lot of damage”!’

With Cammag being the Isle of Man’s national sport, the Tynwald fairfields in St John’s plays host to the match every Boxing Day.

Cammag is closely related to the Scottish game of shinty and the Irish game of hurling, but it ceased to be played in the island in the early 1900s and is no longer an organised sport.

Last year, John ‘Dog’ scored the winning penalty when the match ended in a tie, the first time he had seen the game go to extra time and penalties in all of the 45 years he has been playing Cammag.

John said: ‘I was to take the fifth penalty for the north team and up to then everyone had missed or it had been saved.

‘I took the final penalty and lashed it in to be the hero of the hour!

‘It is a great Manx tradition and I hope that it continues long after I have retired.

‘That said, I don’t think I will retire as I can still do some damage myself!’