Britain’s Bizarre Events

Us Brits are often portrayed as sensible stiff upper lip types, but we also have a more eccentric side, as the likes of Monty Python, Mr Bean and our many quirky events will testify. And if you thought cricket was an odd game, try bog-snorkelling or welly-wangling.

Britain has produced or at least codified some of the world's most prominent sports and exported them around the globe. These days whether it is soccer, golf, rugby or cricket, the British regularly find themselves being beaten at their own games. But nevermind, we still have plenty of games, sports and pastimes that we excel in – largely because they’ve never been heard of outside the British Isles.

All around Britain there are a number of annual events, sports and festivals that range from the eccentric to the bizarre. Some are well known, some are heralded (with a strong sense of irony) as world championship events and we even have an Olympics – well of sorts.

Perhaps one of the most well known such events is that quintessentially Scottish competition, the Highland Games. There are a number of highland games held throughout Scotland in the summer months, the most popular of these are held in Perth, Crieff, Inverness, Dunoon and Braemar. The Highland Games date back to the 11th century, though its sports predate recorded history. Events at the games include hammer throwing, the shot put, tug o’ war and tossing the caber – where kilt wearing Scotsmen hoist tall wooden polls as far as they can. Along side these ‘heavy events’ are bagpipe bands, Scottish dancing competitions, sheep dog trails and highland cattle markets, all adding to the bonnie spectacle of the Highland Games.

While London looks forward to hosting the Olympic Games in 2012, Chipping Campden holds its own version each year known as the Robert Dover’s
Cotswold Olimpick Games. Each year (1st June 2007) on Dover’s Hill, just outside the quaint Cotswolds market town of Chipping Campden, contestants gather to take part in activities ranging from wrestling to shin kicking. The Cotswold Olimpicks date back to 1612, when Robert Dover set up the first eccentric annual event. Today events include wheelbarrow racing, shin kicking, climbing the unclimbable ladder and welly-wangling, which is simply throwing a pair of Wellington Boots as far as you can. The day’s events are followed by a street race known as the Scuttlebrook Wake and a torch-lit procession through the streets of Chipping Campden.

Not far from Chipping Campden on Coopers Hill in Gloucester the locals hold a traditional cheese rolling event. The ‘Cheese rolling’, involves rolling an 8lb of
Double Gloucester Cheese, down Coopers Hill, while contestants roll themselves after it and the first to hit the bottom, wins the cheese – its that simple. This event has run or rolled rather, for hundreds of years and many an injury has been sustained as contestants hurl themselves down the 1 in 2 and 1 in 1 gradient of Cooper’s Hill. Despite the injuries, the event still draws big crowds and is held over the Spring Bank Holiday each year.

It may not take much sporting ability to fall down Cooper’s Hill after a block of Double Gloucester, but it certainly takes that and stamina to run a marathon – especially when you’re racing a horse. Deep in the valleys of mid Wales in the town of Llanwrtyd Wells is the annual Man versus Horse Marathon. The event began in 1980 after a typical late night pub debate about whether a man could beat a horse across country over a significant distance. The landlord of the pub, the Neuadd Arms in Llanwrtyd Wells, decided to test the theory and ever since men (and women) have been racing horses in the lush green Welsh valleys surrounding the town.

For many years the horse has had the upper hand (or should that be upper hoof?). In 1985 cyclists competed, (its manpower versus horse power you see) and in 1989 British cyclist Tim Gould became the first human to beat a horse. Then in 2004 Welshman Huw Lobb won the big one, by being the first man to win on foot with a time of 2 hours, 5 minutes and 19 seconds, for which he won the cash prize of £25,000.

Back to the bizarre, Llanwrtyd Wells is also the setting for the World Bog Snorkeling Championship. Each year over the August Bank Holiday contestants head out from the town to the Waen Rhydd peat bog to snorkel two lengths of a 60 yard water filled trench cut into the bog using flipper power alone and racing against time. Contestants don’t have to wear a wet suit to snorkel in the freezing cold and muddy bog water, but most do.

And finally, if you’ve ever stood on the banks of a river, or on a pebble beach, skimming stones into the water, you might want to take on the world at the World Stone Skimming Championships on the island of Easdale in the Hebrides. Situated on the west coast of Scotland, accessible from Ellenabeich, Easdale is the smallest inhabited island of the Inner Hebrides. Easdale is a unique, rustic isle with no roads, no street lighting and no cars, with peace and quiet only interrupted by the pat, pat, pat, sploosh of the Stone Skimming Championships held in September each year. People of any ability and any age can enter, each competitor is allowed 5 throws, to qualify the stone must skim at least 3 times and the winner is the person that throws the furthest.

The championship is a huge event for the island with a pre-skim party, folk music festival and plenty of activities for all the family. The competition attracts people from around the world to this tiny island community of just 58 permanent residents. In 2006 there were 249 competitors, the women’s world record was set by American Katy Ryan with 47m, while the overall winner was Australian Tony Kynn throwing 63m – the foreigners beating us at our own game again!
For a memorable experience on your vacation to Britain, check what events are on with myguideBritain.