These are the unique photos which were made in the city of Kurgan, Russian Empire in the mid 1890s. They show traditional Russian folkstyle wrestling competition which was an essential part of the feast of Pentecost celebrations.
The proper Russian name of this style was wrestling "na opoyaskax", which is basically a collar and waistband fixed hold style of wrestling with tripping being allowed.
Most commonly utilized techniques were: outside stroke, back-heel (both from outside and inside the legs of opponent), buttock and cross-buttock. First down loses the fall. To win the wrestler has to throw his opponent 3 times.
Modern times, the revival of the sport of old in the city of Kurgan.
You're description of the ball games is 100% accurate Peter 😀 apart from the ale guzzling at the end of the match and sometimes during 😀 I'm not sure about Scotland but the Shrove Tuesday ball games are a feature of England and also Wales. Ahterstone is burial place of the first King Arthur, hence the name "Arthur's Stone."
As Shrove Tuesday 2022 approaches(1 March) I was intrigued to discover a Pathe Newsreel from 1936.It describes the annual Shrovetide Ball game at Ashbourne in Derbyshire which takes place over two days,Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday as a mixture of Ruby,Running and All in Wrestling!
A similar event takes place at Atherstone in Warwickshire on Shrove Tuesday alone
Good idea.
And what he'd make of the pram racing.
I won't tell Ruslan about the cheese rolling then Hack 😄
An interesting comment Alan but I fear it will get Ruslan overly excited. He's previously shown a bit of partiality to shin kicking.
Ruslan apart from the throws some of the pictures are very reminiscent of a Cotswold tradition of shin kicking contests. Lock up - hook up is similar BUT the participants attempt to kick each others shins while wearing steel toe-capped shoes/boots to score points. We have some odd customs in Blighty LOL.
Alexandr Menschikov Olympic Wrestler is also from Kurgan