This year’s annual game of cammag attracted its largest crowd ever and was so fiercely contested it had to be decided by a penalty shootout, after finishing goalless at full time.

Hundreds of players took to the field in St John’s on Boxing Day, with hundreds more lining the edges to watch the revival of the traditional Manx winter sport, making it the biggest modern gathering of cammag players and spectators to date.

The match ended 0–0 following a huge, rolling scrum of players from both sides, with the sheer numbers on the field making space and scoring chances hard to come by.

With no winner decided in open play, the game was settled by penalties, with the south edging it.

Cammag is a traditional Manx team sport, closely related to the Scottish game of shinty and the Irish sport of hurling.

Once the most widely played sport in the Isle of Man, it fell out of use in the early twentieth century following the rise of association football.

Historically, games could involve entire towns or villages, with anything up to 200 players using a curved wooden stick known as a camman and a ball called a crick. Matches were traditionally played on St Stephen’s Day and only during the winter months.

In modern times, the tradition has been revived with an annual game held in St John’s every Boxing Day, maintaining a link to the island’s sporting and cultural heritage.

This year’s match also underlined the physical nature of the sport, with St John Ambulance volunteers on hand to treat minor injuries sustained during play.

Organisers described the turnout as unprecedented, with the scale of participation and support seen as a positive sign for the future of the traditional event in the island.

All photographs: Joseph Ricciardi.