April 22 (UPI) -- A pair of villages in Leicestershire, England, faced off in an unusual local sport known as "bottle kicking." The annual Hallaton Bottle Kicking event took place Easter Monday and saw residents of the villages of Hallaton and Medbourne competing to transport three "bottles" -- small wooden barrels -- across a stream on the border of the two villages. Two of the "bottles" are filled with beer, and the third, known as the "dummy" is solid wood. "It's been another really exciting one," Phil Allan, chairman of the event's organizing committee, told the BBC. "Hallaton scored first, then looked like they would do it again quickly," Allan said. "It's been really good." The Hallaton Bottle Kicking official Facebook page says bottle kicking is a sport that goes back more than 1,000 years "to pagan times," and some local historians believe it dates back up to 2,000 years. Alicia Kearns, member of Parliament for Rutland and Stamford, wrote on social media that bottle kicking is "an Easter tradition like no other." She wrote that "legend has it that bottle kicking is the game which inspired rugby." Members of the Hallaton team, which won this year's contest, were lifted onto the Butter Cross, a local stone monument, to drink from an open barrel before the rest of the beer was distributed to the crowd.