Cnapan is a game that used to be played in Wales. It is often seen as a precursor to rugby.

The game in the sixteenth century was described by George Owen (1552 -1613) historian of Pembrokeshire.

Shrove Tuesday Cnapan `This game is called and not unfitly as shall be showed, the game is thought to be of great antiquity and is as followeth. The ancient Britons being naturally a warlike nation did no doubt for the exercise of their youth in time of peace and to avoid idleness devise games of activity where each man might show his natural prowess and agility, as some for strength of the body by wrestling, lifting of heavy burdens, others for the arm as in casting the bar, sledge, stone, or hurling the bawl or ball, others that excelled in swiftness of foot, to win the praise therein by running, and surely for the exercise of the parts aforesaid this cnapan was prudently invented, had the same continued without abuse thereof. For in it, beside the exercise of the bodily strength, it is not without resemblance of warlike providence, as shall be hereafter declared, and first before I describe you the play, I will let you know that this cnapan happens and falls out m be by two means. The one is a settled or standing cnapan the date and place being known and yearly haunted and observed : of these cnapan days in Pembrokeshire there were wont to be five in number, the first at Bury sands between the parishes of Nevern and Newport upon Shrove Tuesday yearly; the second at Portheinon, on Easter Monday, between the parishes of Meline and Eglwyswrw; the third on low Easterday at Pwll-du in Penbedw between the parishes Penrhydd and Penbedw ; the fourth and fifth were wont to be at St. Meigans in Cemais between Cemais men of the one party, and Emlyn men, and the men of Cardiganshire with them of the other party, the first upon Ascension Day, the other upon Corpus Christi day, 'and these two last were the great and main places, far exceeding any of the former in multitude of people for at these places there have often times been esteemed two thousand foot beside horsemen. . .

`. . . About one or two of the clock afternoon begins the play, in this sort, after a cry made both parties draw to into some plain, all first stripped bare saving a light pair of breeches, bare-headed, bare-bodied, bare legs and feet. . : for if he leave but his shirt on his back in the fury of the game, it is most commonly torn to pieces and I have also seen some long-lock gallants, trimly trimmed at this game not by clipping but by pulling their hair and beards.

`The foot company thus meeting, there is a round ball prepared of a reasonable quantity so as a man may hold it in his hand and no more, this ball is of some massy wood as box, yew, crab or holly tree and should be boiled in tallow for m make it slippery and hard to hold. This ball is called cnapan and is by one of the company hurling bolt upright into the air, and at the fall he that catches it hurls it towards the country he plays for, for goal or appointed place there is none neither needs any, for the play is not given over until the cnapan be so far carried that there is no hope to return it back that night, for the carrying of it a mile or two miles from the first place is no losing of the honour so it be still followed by the company and the play still maintained, it is often times seen the chase to follow two miles and more. . . It is a strange sight to see a thousand or fifteen hundred naked men to concur together in a cluster in following the an as the same is hurled backward and forward'. . .

Owen's account has been quoted here at length because of its descriptive value. It continues for several pages drawing attention to the value of the back players, the `borderers', the `good footmanship', the guile of the forward players who control the direction of the game, and the skill of `hurling' in a tight situation so that `it lighteth to some of his fellows'. The horsemen also take part, being allowed to use `cudgells' in certain situations, against which the call was heddwch, heddwch (`peace, peace, the same call, by a some coincidence, as is today found in the chairing ceremony at an eisteddfod! It has been argued that despite the differences in the two games, the cnapan tradition may well have predisposed the Welsh towards their love of and skill in rugby football. Be that as it may, the tradition persisted: in the Llandysul area of south Cardiganshirc until Igaz. Here was held on the first day of the Julian calendar a mass football match in which the goals were eight miles apart, at the churches of Llandysul and Llanwenog. The disorder and unruliness became so great that in 1922 `the whole business was transmuted into a Sunday School festival which still flourishes.

(Great Britain's largest Celtic folk festival - Gwyl Werin Y Cnapan - is held at Ffostrasol annually. The festival derives its name from "Cnapan" )

Christmas Cnapan

Perhaps the most interesting account of a match of this kind is that given by the Oswestry Observer in 1887-interesting at once for its description of the game as it was played in Wales at the beginning of the nineteenth century and for the clear traces of ancient clan divisions that it reveals. The writer tells us that...

In South Cardiganshire it seems that about eighty years ago the population, rich and poor, male and female, of opposing parishes, turned out on Christmas Day and indulged in the game of football with such vigour that it became little short of a serious fight. The parishioners of Gelland and Pencarreg were particularly bitter in their conflicts; men threw off their coats and waistcoats, and women their gowns, and sometimes their petticoats. At Llanwennog , an extensive parish below Lampeter, the inhabitants for football purposes were divided into the Bros and Blaenaus. My informant, a man over eighty, now an inmate of Lampeter Workhouse, gives the following particulars: In North Wales the ball was called the Bel Troed, and was made with a bladder covered with a Gwd Tarw. In South Wales it was called the Bel Ddu, and was usually made by the shoemaker of the parish, who appeared on the ground on Christmas Day with the ball under his arm, and, said my informant, he took good care not to give it up until he got his money for making it.

The Bros, it should be stated, occupied the high ground of the parish, They were nick-named "Paddy Bros" from a tradition that they were descendants from Irish people who settled on the hills in days long gone by. The Blaenaus occupied the lowlands, and, it may be presumed, were pure-bred Brythons. The more devout of the Bros and Blaenausjoined in the service at the parish church on Christmas morning. At any rate, the match did not begin until about midday, when the service was finished. Then the whole of the Bros and Blaenaus, rich and poor, male and female, assembled on the turnpike road which divided the highlands from the lowlands. The ball having been redeemed from the crydd, it was thrown high in the air by a strong man, and when it fell Bros and Blaenaus scrambled for its possession, and a quarter of an hour frequently elapsed before the ball was got out from the struggling heap of human beings. Then if the Bros, by hook or by crook, could succeed in taking the ball up the mountain to their hamlet of Rhyddlan they won the day; while the Blaenaus were successful if they got the ball to their end of the parish at New Court. The whole parish was the field of operations, and sometimes it would be dark before either party scored a victory. In the meantime many kicks would be given and taken, so that on the following day some of the competitors would be unable to walk, and sometimes a kick on the shins would lead the two men concerned to abandon the game until they had decided which was the better pugilist. There do not appear to have been any rules for the regulation of the game; and the art of football playing in the olden time seems to have been to reach the goal, When once the goal was reached, the victory was celebrated by loud hurrahs and the firing of guns, and was not disturbed until the following Christmas Day.

Victory on Christmas Day, added the old man, was so highly esteemed by the whole country-side that a Bro or a Blaenau would as soon lose a cow from his cowhouse, as the football from his portion of the parish.

Oswestry Observer, 2 March I887. Quoted by G. L. Gomme in The Village Community, 1890

References

Traditional and Folklife. A Welsh view by Orwerth C. Peate. IBSN 0571 09804 5 Faber & Faber 1972.