Sporting Event Of The Week (14)
Here’s a litany of bank holiday sporting carnage.
One of the many attractions at the Young Farmers’ Clubs Northern District Field Day in Irthington in Cumbria on Bank Holiday Saturday was the women’s arm wrestling event. This keenly fought competition proved too much for one competitor who during the course of her bout suffered what was described as a “bad break” to her fighting arm. Her opponent, when she realised what had happened, fainted on the spot.
“Other than that”, said a medical attendant, “the day was fantastic.” An event clearly not for the faint-hearted.
Some 200 miles further south, the annual Cheese Rolling championships were held at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire. Competitors chase 8lb specially made double Gloucester cheeses, which reach speeds of up to 70 mph, down the 1:2 gradient.
For Chris Anderson it was business as usual. He won the first of this year’s men’s downhill races and in the process broke Stephen Glyde’s record of 21 successes. The irony, and we love irony, is that Chris can’t stand double Gloucester, preferring a nice bit of cheddar. Although Chris triumphed again in the third race, he tore his left calf muscle in the process.
The winner of the women’s downhill race was Flo Early from Stroud, repeating her successes of 2008 and 2016. But when she crossed the finishing line, she was quickly attended to by the medics for a suspected dislocated shoulder.
They will need to go more Caerphilly next time.
To lighten this unremitting gloom, I bring you glad tidings of 71-year-old Anne Bruinooge who did a headstand outside of the offices of the Ketchikan Daily News in Alaska. Slightly bizarre behaviour by anybody’s standards but for the game old codger it marked a watershed moment. She had just performed a headstand in each of the 50 US mainland states.
Not only has no one ever done that before (or so it is believed) but she didn’t even injure herself. There’s life in the old ‘uns yet.
