[MR] BBC: Oldest Football in Miami for Scottish FIFA Match

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends, especially Scots, and soccer fans of all teams,

Today the BBC has posted a feature article about the world's oldest
soccer/foot ball.

The ball was discovered in the 1970s stuck in the rafters above the Queen's
Chamber at Stirling Castle. It dates to between 1540 and 1570, and might
(and I say might, since it is a stretch) have been played with by Mary
Queen of Scots. Well, she certainly didn't play in matches with the thing.
(Mary and her mother, Mary of Guise, did play the more genteel game of
golf, and today a set of clubs is displayed in the Queen's Chamber.)

Scottish football was a rather inelegant and brutal "game" involving mobs
rather than organized teams. The idea was to advance the ball from the
center of a town to a goal on either side. There were virtually no rules,
although weapons were frowned upon. Quite often the ball changed hands
after a stout kick to an opponent's privates or worse, and fatalities
occasionally happened. The melee might go on for hours, ending only when a
single point was scored. King James I (the all-Scottish one, not James VI
(better known as James I of England) tried to ban the game and force
everybody to practice archery. He failed.

So this ancient football has been temporarily removed from a museum in
Edinburgh and is now in Miami. It will be displayed at today's World Cup
match between Scotland and Brazil.

You can see the ball at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1eydpx6020o .

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Continuing a crusade to keep the original Merry Rose relevant and in
business.