Due to the hectic nature of the game, Lauren actually rarely saw the ball in play. But luckily, she was much more interested in photographing the bystanders, capturing a sense of the atmosphere and anticipation. During the match grinning (or slightly disgruntled) teenagers are shown with arrow face paint indicating their chosen team, older fans are seen leaning on their balconies taking advantage of their vantage point, and wider shots show a vast sea of heads, images you’d much rather expect from a festival headliner as opposed to a community sport. In one of Lauren’s favourite images, four young boys are immersed in the game; keen to get involved in the action, they’ve clambered up a tree, shouting passionately to their team about the whereabouts of the ball. She also managed to nestle her way into the pre-game ticketed lunch, where she spoke to locals, and got her only up-close look at the ball – “meticulously” hand-painted by locals – and heard the 1891 Shrovetide Anthem being sung.

For Lauren, it’s hard to put into words just how unifying the Shrovetide is, “it brings people together in a way which you can’t really fully understand unless you’ve been”, she says, with different generations mingling in a manner that’s rarely seen. On the one hand she encountered kids standing on walls making TikTok dances and shouting lyrics of the Shrovetide Anthem, and on the other there were “old timers” in their 80s and 90s reminiscing about the Shrovetide of their youth, all joined together by the eccentric event. So when you’re flipping your pancakes later tonight, take a moment to think about the sweaty players bustling a ball down the streets of a small northern town, with no real reason as to why.