It's all gravy for some pubs
By Kate Simon
As women continue to challenge men in the sporting arena, Jasmine Tetley of Nottingham became the latest to beat the opposite sex at their own game when she was named overall victor of one of the nation’s most hotly contested annual fixtures, the World Conker Championships.
Some 250 hopefuls – many in fancy dress, naturally – gathered in Southwick, Northamptonshire, last Sunday to battle it out in the 58-year-old clash. Jasmine was not only crowned queen, she was declared the ‘conkerer’ after beating this year’s king, Marc Hunter of Northamptonshire, in a cracking final.
The conker competition is just one example of Britain’s packed calendar of eccentric events and it’s a typically serious business. Volunteers from the organising body, Ashton Conker Club, string the nuts, drawn blind from a bag to prevent any horseplay, and players must keep no less than 20cm of lace between knuckle and nut when striking or receiving.
Earlier this year, I helped publicise the revival of another bizarre tournament in a quiet English village, the Snail Racing World Championships in Congham, Norfolk. Here, game gastropods form a circle at the centre of a damp tablecloth before going under starter’s orders – ‘Ready, Steady, Slow!’ – with the first across the finishing line at the edge of the table awarded a trophy filled with lettuce leaves. I can report the 1995 record of 2 minutes by Archie the snail remains unbroken.
Eating stinging nettles, racing boats made from Yorkshire puddings, charming record numbers of worms from the earth – no subject is too crazy for these madcap meets. Some have taken place over centuries, others are modern inventions, and many, by their creators’ own admission, were thought up over a few jars. The World Coal Carrying Championships in Gawthorpe, West Yorkshire, is said to have been the result of an argument in a pub between two coal merchants about who was the fittest.
In fact, several of these wacky affairs take place down the pub, too. In Wybunbury, Cheshire, The Swan Inn marks the starting line of the pie-rolling competition at the Fig Pie Wake, in which sturdily constructed pies are rolled down the high street to see which one can go the furthest.
The Rose ‘n’ Bowl in Stacksteads, Lancashire, has the job of filling a makeshift pool with 440 gallons of gravy each year for the World Gravy Wrestling Championship. And competitors must have a drink at no less than seven pubs along the route of the Oxted Pram Race in Surrey, while pushing a fully grown adult in an improvised pram.
One of the most famous quirky fixtures, the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling in Gloucestershire, where competitors chase an 18lb wheel of Double Gloucester down a hill of shoulder-dislocating steepness, even inspired a name change in the 1970s for a nearby inn to the Cheese Rollers. Who won this year’s perilous plunge down the 650ft drop? Delaney Irving – a woman, of course.
Phil’s Beer Notes
Arguably the most prolific pub when it comes to odd sports is the Lewes Arms in the East Sussex town of the same name. It hosts the World Pea Throwing Championships, spaniel racing, in which the dogs chase a human ‘hare’ decked in sausages, and the ancient art of ‘dwyle flunking’ on a regular basis. The main reason to go there, though, remains the Harvey’s Best brewed a couple of hundred yards down the road, now permanently on the bar following a rebellion by regulars when new owners threatened to take it off.
Another notable is the Barley Mow in Bonsall, Derbyshire, home to the World Hen Racing Championship each August, which doesn’t distract it from serving a great pint. It also brews its own beer on site at the aptly-named Chickenfoot Brewery.
Photo © World Gravy Wrestling Championships