Winchester College football, also known as Winkies, is a code of football played at Winchester College. It is akin to the Eton Field and Wall Games and Harrow Football in that it enjoys a large following from Old Wykehamists but is not played outside the community directly connected to Winchester College. The Winkies season is during Common Time (January–March), the second term of the academic year. History In the 17th century, Winchester Football was played in Kingsgate Street; each team attempted to move a football from one end to the other. There was with little in the way of rules. The game was then moved away from the College to the flat, grassy top of St. Catherine's Hill. The game persisted with few rules, but required a long line of junior men, "kickers-in", to keep the ball from rolling away down the slope. By about 1825, the rules had been standardised and matches with large teams of 22 players, 20 in the "hot" (scrum) and 2 "behinds" (backs) were played between College and Commoners. The fundamental rules of "dribble" and "tag" were added at this stage. The game was moved from the top of St Catherine's Hill to where it is played now, on Meads. The lines of kickers-in were then replaced by canvas sheets, resulting in the name "canvas" for the football pitch, and soon afterwards by netting to allow people to watch the game without the aid of a ladder. By 1901, teams had been reduced to 15, with 8 in the hot, 3 "hotwatchers" (scrum-halves), and 3 "behinds". The earliest evidence of coloured shirts used to identify football teams comes from Winchester football: an image from before 1840 is entitled "The commoners have red and the college boys blue jerseys". The use of coloured shirts at Winchester college is confirmed again in 1859: "Precisely at twelve o'clock, according to good old custom, the blue jerseys of college and the red of commoners mingled in the grand commencing "hot". That same year, Winchester College played a match of an undefined variety of football against the Winchester Garrison Officers; 28 "goals" were scored, with 11 players on each side, leading the historian Ian Denness to suggest that the rules were a hybrid of the Winchester and Eton football games. Winkies was the first variety of football that was played in South Africa, promoted by Canon Gorge Ogilvie, principal of