Britain’s alternative sports

Cheese-Rolling

From cheese rolling to bog snorkelling, the Brits love wacky sporting alternatives. A raft of hilarious spectacles take place annually, often as part of a festival steeped in tradition and local culture. Head-off on an adventure and discover the strange and wonderfully eccentric goings-on that will leave you looking back in laughter for a lifetime.

Cheese Rolling

Competitors chase a giant cheese downhill in Gloucestershire.  No-one is quite sure of the origins of this surreal event. Some say it was all about grazing rights and others talk about it being a fertility ritual. Either way the tradition is thought to go back some 600 years and shows now signs of slowing. Cheer-on the crazy competitors of The Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake as they hurtle down a hill after a round of Double Gloucester cheese. Cheese has been recorded hurtling down the hill at 70mph - that’s the speed limit on British motorways. Cheese Rolling

World Bog Snorkelling Championships

bog snorkelling

Watch these filthy competitors battle it out in a bog. Watch competitors take the plunge during the bog snorkelling weekender in Mid Wales. A 60-metre swim in a peat bog is just the thing for them on what’s often a blisteringly hot August day. Held in the tiny town Llanwrtyd Wells in Mid Wales it’s billed as a unique endurance race, so why not get down and dirty or cheer on these truly filthy competitors as they push themselves on. World Bog Snorkelling Championships

Race the train

Ride the train on the Talyllyn Railway to Abergynolwyn in Wales and watch as scores of runners attempt to keep-up or beat you to your destination. Competitors now come from all over the globe to have a go across this multi-terrain event. The Talyllyn Railway was the first of the small railways to be rescued by a preservation society, and is now one of the Great Trains of Wales.Race the train

Where to watch the wacky action

Six ways to see a different side of British sporting culture across the year

Olney Ladies Pancake Race

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Discover a pancake race with a long and intriguing history. Olney Ladies Pancake Race

Dorset Knob Throwing

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Discover Dorset’s savoury biscuit tossing in all its competitive glory.
Dorset Knob Throwing

Tetbury Woolsack Races

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Find out how carrying wool sacks up a 1 in 4 gradient hill is supposed to be fun.
Tetbury Woolsack Races

World Snail Racing Championships

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Ready, set, slow! See if your snail can set the pace at the Congham Fete.
World Snail Racing Championships

Race the train

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Hop aboard and watch from a train as a bunch of runners try to beat you.
Race the train

World Conker Championships

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Victory hangs on a string: see the clash of the conkers at this world championship.
World Conker Championships

Catch some of Britain’s wackiest alternative sports

A pick of sporting spectacles featuring fearless participants and cheering crowds, and some very surreal sports.

World Gravy Wrestling Championships

Competition gets messy as wrestlers battle it out in huge pools of gravy.

World Gurning Championship

Look on as people distort their faces into all kinds of weird and wonderful poses.

World Stone Skimming Championships

For a record never set in stone, head to the World Stone Skimming Championships in Scotland.

Maldon Mud Race

Watch a bunch of fancy-dress-clad competitors dash over 400-metres of the muddy bedof a river at low tide.

Source: Amelia, VisitBritain Australia's Press Team, amelia.robertson@visitbritain.org