For the second year running, journalism students headed to Ashbourne to cover Royal Shrovetide Football.
They created a pop-up newsroom in the town where they were able to cover the event live.
Students were also based at the Markeaton Street campus of the University of Derby to collate the stories, photographs and videos of the historic game and put them on Storyhub.
This is what they thought about Royal Shrovetide:
“I was filming the hug and looked around for one second and one of my friends getting pushed in, I had to run in and save him!” – Tom Morley, 1st Year BAJ
“We were trying to record some footage and we got separated when the ball kind of bounced towards us and we ended up right in the middle of the hug, which hopefully made good footage until some people fell on us.” Reece Hussey-Morrison, 1st Year BAJ
“Shrovetide is absolutely bonkers. I think my life flashed before my eyes about five times. At one point I was filming the hug when I got stuck in between two massive groups of guys, one pushing forward, one pushing backwards with me getting squeezed in the middle. My main worry wasn’t me getting hurt, but damaging my phone.” – Giancarlo Canto, 1st Year BAJ
I’ve never seen so many people climbing up trees, walls and onto anything they can, just to get a glimpse of the Shrovetide football. An unforgettable experience to see the passion that is shown throughout the game.” Sam Pardoe, 1st Year BAJ
“A crazy experience but with such a strong sense of community! Everybody’s happy, chatty and smiling and you meet people from all over the UK.” – Rebecca Tombs, 2nd Year BAJ
