rolled any cheese lately?

[DaSwede]

Last year I read a short piece on the Annual Cheese Rolling Contest in Gloucester in a Swedish newspaper. At first I thought it was just an April fool's joke, but there's so much about it on the internet that I've come to believe you actually do that sort of thing. You are indeed an inscrutable nation. Anyways, what I wanted to know was: Have you yourself or anyone you know or heard of ever participated in the contest? Yeah? Tell me more.

[mightyWBA]

We in Great Britain invented most of the world favourite sports,for example Football,rugby,cricket,tennis,and are now regularly beaten at them by you foreigners.

In an attempt to regain world supremacy in sport we are inventing new ones,like cheese rolling.So mind your own business while we carry on our cheesy pursuits.

Rule Britannia!

[spacechimp]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_rolling have you looked here?

[spacechimp]

If you had the link I posted after your comment, you would have seen that cheese rolling is at least 200 years old.

[Solarjunkie]

I like the Wikipedia description! They run up the hill as well as tumble down, and during the war they rolled a cardboard replica with a little token bit of cheese inside it. The clear stripe on the hill can be seen for miles around and from the top it appears not far off vertical. A couple of years ago the event was cacelled due to the unavailability of safety staff - but people turned up and chucked themselves off the top anyway.

I have read reports stating that cheese rolling goes aback to at least the bronze age, the cheese representing the passage of the sun.

On the same day about 20 miles away teams of people carrying very heavy sacks on their shoulders will race up the steepest inhabited road in England - 1 in 4. And there are plenty more traditions dating from a decade or two to a millenium or two going on all over the place. All accompanied by much beer drinking and merriment!

[jno]

it's genuine enough, but not exactly a mass sport. For some reason I've never taken part myself. Same with this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_Snorkelling

But if you want something closer to home, don't forget the World Air Guitar Championsip in Finland! http://www.omvf.net/2005/index.php?lang=en

[Dingoeater]

No, but a friend of mine rolled cheeses in Chester town centre about three weeks ago. Her team were soundly beaten by some lads who made Stilton.

[DaSwede]

We in the Foreigner's Legion thank you mightyWBA for your clarifying analysis! I was hoping simply for facts and anecdotes, never dreamed that the concept as such would be comprehensible to me after just one short answer. Shall I take it you don't want us to send you any more Svens, then?

spacechimp, that was a great link, I hadn't come across that particular one. I especially appreciated the turn of words "...any casualties who do not end up at the bottom through gravity."

Solarjunkie, your reply was informative as well as funny. The solar analogy seems improbable at first glance don't you think, but then again I understand we humans have always been in awe of the sungods, so who knows.

jno, I'm having trouble choosing between your riveting alternatives. May I stick to Air Hoovering (pretending to clean the house) instead?

Dingoeater, any pictures?