Thursday 28 May 2009

The Gentle Art of Cheese Rolling

A short video for anyone who hasn't enjoyed footage of this two hundred year old tradition. Think flower-sprigged frocks and dancing round the Maypole...then think again.



I think I read that 34 were injured this year; thirty-three were chasing cheeses, one fell out of a tree.

18 comments:

  1. OOOh I think that was me in the red cape...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wondered if it was! I think the one in the black jock strap may be David Cameron.

    ReplyDelete
  3. God, it's hardly "Far From The Madding Crowd", is it? No wonder our delicate Laura Ashley bucolic past is mocked across Europe...
    Wonder if the cheese is edible at the end?

    ReplyDelete
  4. No wonder our economy is so bad. Half our workforce is off sick with cheese based injuries.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A fine tradition, and long may the health and safety people keep well away...

    ReplyDelete
  6. It just looks sooooo dangerous...that would be enough to put me off.

    ReplyDelete
  7. So e-r, were you the one who stole their cheese?

    ReplyDelete
  8. There'll always be an England!
    AND our Brother T, one hopes...Aloha

    ReplyDelete
  9. i love the woman in the background saying "ow,ow" as people fell! xoxox
    vw: taco

    ReplyDelete
  10. This takes place just a few miles from where I live. The winner was knocked unconscious a couple of years ago but refused to go to hospital until he'd had his picture taken with his cheese.

    Repsect due, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Extreme Cheese Chasing...?

    I'll stick to the Tiddly Wink Olympics methinks.

    Hope you recover from your cheese-related injuries soon BT.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That looks like so much fun, if you like broken and bruised bits anyway.
    Cheese is far too expensive to be let loose down here!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh and the papers here are reporting that this was won by an Aussie and the first woman home with the cheese was a Kiwi! Good grief.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow, impressive, and that's some robust cheese they make over there in Gloustershire!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Just as well the cheese isn't square. Wouldn't be half as much fun. Although quite why one was in a tree escapes me.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm being a bad blogger again. I did twist an ankle playing badminton last week; will that do as an excuse (can't work the pedals on the computer).

    Lucy - Is it so widely mocked? I didn't know that. I wonder if the cheese is even edible at the beginning; it seems pretty robust!

    Steve - Now that's an excuse I never thought of. Damn.

    Nota Bene - I wholly agree - Steve excepted.

    DJK - How disappointing. You'd cut rather a dash pursuing the cheese in something flamboyant!

    EV - Nah. I hadn't got any biscuits, so I thought better of it.

    Cloudia - Thank you. Politically we are in free fall at the moment...on one great national cheese roll, one might say, so who knows?

    Savannah - I noticed that! Wasn't she strange? I imagined her doing the sound track for a war movie...

    Jules - Big respect due. I imagine no film or photo quite captures how steep the hill is - 1 in 1 in places, I read.

    Laura - Thank you. Perhaps that twisted ankle was inspired by the cheese-rolling, especially as our grass court is on a bit of a slope!

    Amanda - It does look fun, in a 'rather them than me' sort of way. I hear you have one or two hills down your way. Perhaps you
    could substitute a kumara, or a pipi or something?

    Gadjo - Robust it must be. Perhaps they have a secret method of hardening it up, like conkers.

    Madame DeFarge - I particularly liked the tree-related injury. There's probably not a lot else to do in Cooper's Hill, but tumble down the slope of climb a tree.

    ReplyDelete
  17. There's a gumboot tossing event held in Taihape...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Its held in Gloucestershire and they are not very bright. I stood in the shed wearing a Bath shirt and the level of conversation was very disappointing.

    ReplyDelete