OK, kiddies, it's the moment you've been waiting for. It's ten and a half o'clock ..... it's time for the Silver Ball.

According to traditional procedures, the Mayor chucks the Silver Ball from the wall of the church, over Lambeth Walk and onto the beach below. The sprogs then have plenty of room to chase and throttle each other attempting to gain possession of the Silver Ball. There is usually a substantial horde of urchins and several unscrupulous people have been known to throw fake Silver Balls on to the beach at the same time. 

Consequently, there is usually quite a few minutes of total carnage before someone breaks away from melee and legs it for cover in the town. No one seems particularly worried about the whole affair and the resultant casualties are usually seen by the town Darwinists as a good way of keeping down the excess child population. On the plus side, some children compete successfully in the event for a number of years and are rewarded by being given their freedom when they reach adulthood. (It is rumoured that Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe are thinking about using this phenomenon as a basis for a sequel to Gladiator!).

Unfortunately .....

..... the more intellectually gifted may notice a couple of things:-

Nevertheless, a few hardy (and foolhardy) sprogs have gathered on Lambeth Walk and there's the scent of blood in the air.

Then, there's a movement in the imperial box. A hand extends gracefully and it's that moment that the sprogs have been desperately waiting for ..... their ball's dropped!

The ball spills out on to the walkway but by now the main event is under way. It's time to do all those things that you get detention for when you do them in the playground. Totally ignoring the ball a gang of sprogs grab the kid who annoys everyone at school and decide to introduce the gift of terror into his life! They grab him and jokingly act like they are going to heave him over the railings into the sea .....

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