IT COULD have been a whole new Ba' game, were it not for a team of engineers.
The game between the "Uppies" and "Doonies" - played on Christmas Day and New Year's Day - sees the two halves of the Orkney capital, Kirkwall, struggle to get a hand-stitched leather ba' to the opposing end of the town, either carrying or kicking th
e ba' to the goal.
This year, a £4m water and sewage system for Orkney will be put on hold and all pipes and trenches filled in to stop players smuggling the ba' through open pipes and holes.
Most of the game, which can last for more than five hours, involves giant scrummages as players jostle for the ba'. At any one time, the vast majority of the 200 players will not know where the ba' is and the teams try to smuggle the ba' by any means to win the tussle. Players have even been known to clamber over roofs, invade the police station and even trash the local manse.
Scottish Water engineers, who are working on a £1m project to overhaul Kirkwall's water and sewage system, feared some players would try to run through the uncompleted water and sewer pipes with the ba' or try to sneak through the trenches.
The engineers feared an unwise local might get stuck in a pipe or that some players in a scrum might fall into trenches and hurt themselves.
Jason Rose, a spokesman for Scottish Water said: "Every time we have a major project we gather around a table and think about what is going to happen and what we need to do about it, things like gala days and so forth, and the Ba' falls into that category. It occurred to us that some bright spark might try to smuggle the ba' through the town using our holes and pipes but I'm afraid they'll be sealed up tight."
Bobby Leslie, a Kirkwall councillor and member of the organising committee for the Ba' said: "They have done the right thing. I would have hoped that no one would be silly enough to try and go through the pipes. It is very competitive and the players go all out to win."
The full article contains 378 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
