La soule à la crosse (France)

This is a sport that involves moving the ball to the place marked as the goal. Two teams have the same goal (place the ball in a specific place), and their composition had no defined limits (originally teams consisted of all important men from two or more villages / married and not married). The game was started with the ball throw of the last bride of the year), and the ball can move in all directions. We have no other information about any additional rules. In short, it would be a medieval version of hockey.
He who held the ball could only be attacked by one person at a time and it was forbidden to hit under the belt. It was the rural game par excellence, which requires no particular terrain.
We play on the village square, a field, a clearing or on the banks of a river. Natural obstacles such as hedges, ponds and streams or small walls are small supplements that add flavor to the game.
Many people could play: adults, children 6, priests (for example, Archbishop Rouen Eudes Rigaud (around 1205-1276) was indignant in 1248 by the behavior of his diocesan priests playing in ... It also seems that the players were only men. It is certain that the game is difficult, but violence does not seem to be tolerated.

We find several variations of the game of Soule. It was a ball or balloon, either of wood or leather, in the latter case it was furnished with hay, bran, moss or even hair of various animals.

The soule was struck by the hand, the fist or the foot, if it was wooden as mentioned above we used wooden sticks, which gives us already four variants of this game: by hand, with the foot, with the two and to the stick. Each region had its preferences because it was played everywhere in France.

The stick is made of birch branches. The handle is rounded, the part used to hit the ball is flattened.
Balls could be made of wood, sometimes made of leather, filled in the latter case with hay, bran or foam or inflated with air. A ball filled with hay has the advantage of being less dangerous for participants. A wooden ball is easier to use in the game, but it is more dangerous.

The main feature of this game is the struggle, often violent between two groups, and the spontaneous and public pleasure of the confrontation. The spice of the meeting could also be the settlement of certain grievances between two villages or small towns.

Soule was the tournament of the poor, with its heroes, its wounded and .... its dead !.
Soule was violent, some texts attest, ecclesiastics called it "this fatal sport", the author Adam de la Halle quotes a certain Robin, who complains to his wife "to have belly tired of the soule of l "Other times" But the violent blows could be dead especially in the Crosse à la crosse, where we report the clash of two teams.