CHEESE-ROLLING

Which do you think is the world’s most ‘cheesy’ nation (read ‘cheese-lovers’)? The French? The Dutch? The Italians? Nope. Apparently the English. What makes me think so? Well, check the video below.

The annual event that has been held for hundreds of year at the Cooper Hill in Gloucestershire involves rolling a round of Double Gloucester cheese off the top of the hill and…chasing it. You can imagine that since the cheese gets a head start and reaches speeds of over 70 mph, this is not an easy feat. Thus, rather than having to catch the cheese in mid-run, it’s the first person to get to the bottom of the 200m-long hillside that wins (and gets the cheese!)

As you can imagine, the activity, as any other, is usually accompanied with occassional, minor injuries…no, seriously, people end up with broken bones and sprained ankles here. And the runaway cheese can easily knock off a spectator, too. OK, here’s the promised video. Judge for yourself:

Gloucester Cheese Rolling 2009

What else than love for cheese would make you even consider doing this??

One more fact probably not worth remembering is that, due to the food rationing in the UK, between 1941-1954 cheese-rolling was ‘played’ with a big round of wood that had a small piece of cheese inside.

Anyway, if you don’t feel like breaking your neck to get your daily amount of protein, check Sportmeets for some more conventional but perhaps equally entertaining sporting options in your area!