Last updated 19:41, Thursday, 03 April 2008

• View more pictures...

As a keen competitor in the cut-throat world of the Workington poker-playing circuit, Low Seaton roofing contractor Joe Sandwith knows the value of keeping his cards close to his chest.

But that's nothing compared with how close he tries to keep the Uppies and Downies ball each year.

The latest series of Uppies and Downies finished on Saturday and according to Joe, one of the stalwarts of the local game, it was particularly poignant as it could have been the last ever traditional Easter encounter, which has been taking place in Workington since the 1700s.

In a year's time the ancient playing ground at the Cloffocks will be partially blocked by a huge new Tesco superstore, with filling station and car park, sparking fears that the annual game might not survive.

Joe, a veteran Downie combatant and Save our Cloffocks campaigner, says: “Uppies and Downies is a game without rules and controls and I believe that it will not be long before there is collateral damage caused to Tesco property or to a customer's car.

“That will be when Tesco will play the health and safety card and take steps to ban the game.

“To my mind, uncontrolled football and petrol pumps just cannot survive side by side. This land should never be built on."

Uncontrolled? It is a fact the game has no set rules.

The Uppies, from the top end of town, have to carry the ball by hand to the gates of Workington Hall to claim a victory.

By way of contrast the Downies, who represent families from the old Marsh and Quay area of town, have to get it to the lighthouse at the end of the quayside.

And talk about keeping his cards - or rather the Uppies and Downies Ball - close to his chest, listen to how difficult Joe says this actually is when the players scrum down.

“If you have the gift of getting the ball and slipping it into your jacket, fair enough. You take the chance of getting your jacket ripped to bits if anyone does find it.

“Try to sneak the ball away in a car, and it could be upturned by the crowd like a beetle on its back, unable to move as the ball is seized

once more.

“It might have been freezing cold in the darkness on the Hanratty's Scrapyard area of the Cloffocks, but it wasn't like that in the ruck. It was like Barbados in the middle of

that pack."

If someone is in trouble, he continues, they just put their hands up and say, "Help us!"

It's a strange feeling, he will have you believe, when you lie there trying to get the ball and “there are 20 guys on top and squashing the breath out of you".

Born and bred in Low Seaton, Joe left Guard Street School at 15 and began contracting, working away from town, and graduating with honours in the university of hard knocks.

He's still there working on his PhD, wake-boarding behind his 115 hp power-boat up the River Derwent, passing under Ha'penny Billy's railway bridge with only a foot clearance above the windscreen.

Both pilot and the wake-boarder, being towed like a water skier, have to bend double to avoid braining themselves.

Joe shows the scar tissue around the base of a little finger which was almost torn off when he crashed.

This was caused by “running out of water" - and speeding into a part of the river that was just six inches deep.

The owner of Sandwith Roofing, he admits to a couple of times in the old days - “before scaffolding" - when he slid down the wet, slippery slates of steeply-inclined roofs with apparently nothing to arrest his fall.

He was only brought to a provident stop by the heels of his boots catching in the guttering high above the street.

“Maybe it was not intended that I die on those occasions," he says.

That same rule might well also apply to the escapades he has had snow-boarding.

Joe is an expert snow-boarder, something highly unusual at the age of 57.

Most protagonists of this sport are barely in their teens or slightly older.

France, Italy and Austria are his playgrounds, with one episode near Chamonix turning into a nightmare.

He snow-boarded down deep powder snow into the bed of a ravine, and found himself on a level section.

“Funny" he thought as she slid forward to investigate.

He stopped short on the brink of a 90ft waterfall, encased in ice.

Yet he had to get down as the light faded and night drew in.

Below was a succession of young saplings growing out from the cliff, and he dropped down from one to the other hanging on for dear life.

At the bottom, looking up the frozen cascade, he felt utterly drained.

He laughs when he remembers it, then grows serious.

His thoughts are focused on the future of Uppies and Downies.

“It's a great feeling fighting to accomplish something against the odds, and successfully battling it out,” he says.

“I just hope that goes for Uppies and Downies too in future years."

He reconsiders what he says and shakes his head.

“To be honest, I'm not optimistic."