Historic Hallaton Bottle Kicking event called off for the second year on the spin

The historic Hallaton Bottle Kicking event has been called off for the second year on the spin after falling victim again to the Covid pandemic.

The organisers of the brutally famous Easter Monday inter-village showdown said it would be impossible to hold it safely amid the continuing coronavirus threat.

They said that the health and safety of the people of Hallaton and Medbourne has to come first.

The two rival Harborough villages are now hoping to stage the much-loved outdoors spectacular in 2022 – for the first time in three years.

This is only the third time in the Bottle Kicking’s proud history of over 200 years that it will not go ahead.