IT may be one of the region's roughest and toughest sporting traditions - but it didn't stop 81-year-old Betty Amlin getting stuck in.

Betty was given the honour of getting yesterday's annual Shrove Tuesday ball game under way in the County Durham village of Sedgefield.

The respected villager started the 1,000-year tradition by passing the small leather ball three times through the bull ring on the village green, at 1pm.

After that, it disappeared into a writhing mass of hundreds of burly men, young lads and scores of children.

You may think - given the reputation of the game, in which there are no teams, no colours and no rules - that Betty wouldn't get sight of the ball again.

But Neil Hetherington, landlord at The Nags Head, later showed the spirit of the game by making a 100-yard dash to place it back at her feet.

"She told me she wanted a kick of the ball, so we set it up for her - that's how the game works.

"The lads playing will try and let the kids and the older villagers have a go, like they would have when they used to play it," he said.

Betty said: "It's an old tradition which goes back a long way and I like to keep traditions going.

"It's a rough game and you have got to watch yourself - but these days I just let the ball come to me, I don't run for it."

The origins of the game are unknown, but one popular myth suggests it was played between warring tribes using an enemy's severed head for a ball.

Veteran player and 1976 winner Charlie Iceton offers a different theory.

He said: "In the old days, it was farmers verses tradesmen, but now it's a free-for-all. The history doesn't really matter, everybody just comes out and has a good time."

One time-honoured custom is for the ball to be 'kidnapped' - conveniently allowing players enough time to sink a pint or two.

The game ended at 4.50pm when Carl Tonner put the ball through the bull ring three-times to claim victory.

Battered and bruised, the 18-year-old joiner, from The Meadows, Sedgefield, credited friend Bradley Saunders and dad Andrew Thompson for the win.

He said: "I get to keep the ball for the year, but you don't really defend the title or anything. Once you've won it, you let somebody else have a go, but it doesn't stop you playing next year."