Does Your Home Town Have Any Bizzare Annual Sporting Events Or Other?

[Donger]

There's always the gentle sport of cheese rolling near Gloucester. ( I think you really have to like Double Gloucester cheese, though). Carpet bowls it ain't.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Kendal Torchlight Procession - utterly dire event that many locals seem to love.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=FR0wdJHHk50&feature=emb_logo

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Just near me there's the World Coal Carrying Championships: http://www.gawthorpemaypole.org.uk/?page_id=21

Held on Easter Monday it's the 13th of April this year. A friend of ours won the women's two year's running after she was coaxed into entering on the day. My son was 2nd in the U18 one a few years ago.

View attachment 507435

My thoughts too, even though it was (presumably?) part of Ossett - not Wakefield, pre-1974 boundary changes

I've never done it, but seen it, & know a few who have entered

@DCLane
Have you seen this?
https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/...ter-world-coal-carrying-championships-2185142

 

[Drago]

Every Saturday night Milton Keynes hosts the regional heats of the amateur league drunken supermarket trolley racing doubles. Some very promising talent in the town.

 

[DCLane]

Have you seen this?
https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/...ter-world-coal-carrying-championships-2185142

I had: basically it'll continue with stored coal. Looks like there's a few more years yet for men / women running with 50kg / 20kg sacks of coal up a slope.

Thinking of having a go? I can't as ... erm ... I'm track racing in Manchester that day.

 

[screenman]

Some of the locals have wash even if they do not need it.

 

[oldwheels]

Where I was born Workington, West Cumbria, has this mental annual game that I believe has a game every day for 4 days. It's called The Uppies and Downies. It's being going on for over a hundred years. Basically its just a massive brawl, loosely based on rugby as far as I can see. It's from 2 rival areas of town, and the game starts in a midpoint between the two, I would estimate that the total length of the play area is about a mile and half, but they can end up anywhere. On this particular year they ended up in the town centre. It's just to try and get a leather kind of ball back to the base point of either the uppies or downies (The Harbour or The Castle), by whatever means possible.

The authorites have tried to stop it, with all the health and safety blah blah. But they can't, it just happens. I've never participated and have no desire to (too old now). I've watched before, and it was one of the most mental things I've ever watched. I don't live there anymore, but it's certainly something different, the other places I lived at, I can't recall anything like this going on..

I just wondered is this the only town/village/city that has some crazy event, or does yours have something similar/different etc?

This happens all over the place. I have a handball from the Jethart uppies and doonies which is from the year of my birth.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

We have a raft race during which a few of the home made contraptions end up in Davy Jones locker. And a downhill kart race which sees the odd kart disintegrate on it's run.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I had: basically it'll continue with stored coal. Looks like there's a few more years yet for men / women running with 50kg / 20kg sacks of coal up a slope.

Thinking of having a go? I can't as ... erm ... I'm track racing in Manchester that day.

Of course, Wakefield has 'The WestGate Run'.................
Which is something that I've never partaken of!

 

[DCLane]

We have a raft race during which a few of the home made contraptions end up in Davy Jones locker. And a downhill kart race which sees the odd kart disintegrate on it's run.

When I lived in Portrush they had one. My raft's probably still at the bottom of the harbour.

 

[classic33]

Of course, Wakefield has 'The WestGate Run'.................
Which is something that I've never partaken of!

"Upon the Merrie Cities oldest street
when twilight creeps across the Yorkshire sky,
traditionally friends and strangers meet
and let the velvet darkness pass them by.

In pictures from a dim and distant past,
as gaslight spilled from heavy shadowed doors,
to neon tinted bars of Friday last
the sound of liquid laughter gently pours.

At seven, sharp, we meet in the Redoubt,
it’s crooked rooms are full of chiming talk.
then on to face our Waterloo and stout
as black as coal, to help us on our walk.

The White Hart next and sawdust ghosts afoot,
stiff, wooden chairs that creak like age old men.
A chimney spills authentic, ancient soot
that trails away in footsteps way back when.

Where Wagon and Horses were tethered tight
we drink and watch the youngsters on the baize -
full heads of hair and eyes a shiny bright,
no blood shot orbs and salt and pepper greys.

The Smiths Arms draws us to a blazing fire
that warms us from the hearth of cosy rooms
until we leave to climb towards the spire,
our breath explodes in will o’ the wisp plumes.

The Swan With Two Necks, changed yet one more time,
its stained glass windows gazing at the mill
forever etched against a sky in grime -
though long gone you can see its outline still.

Henry Boons is next with its straw thatched bar
where trendy student ambience abounds.
The walls are permeated with a tar
of funky, grungy, rocky, poppy sounds.

Under the railway bridge and cross the road,
the red bricked Elephant & Castle looms,
a place where time has permanently slowed
and memories are cobwebbed in the rooms.

Finally, back across the road to find
the Black Horse on the corner of my dreams
of a dim and distant past I left behind
supported from its old, oak timbered beams.

Perhaps these cobbled streets hold no surprise
to those who visit here upon a chance -
but living half my life beneath these skies
I hear the music, soft beneath the dance.

A century or more of stumbling feet
have traced this path from St. Micks to the Rock.
Good spirits open wide the doors to greet
the revellers of Wakefield when they knock."

 

[classic33]

We'd the Beacon Hill race, until the insurance got too much.

Start at the Piece Hall, down to "Macks"(lowest point within the town centre), then straight up to the top and back. A 50 degree slope at best.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

@classic33

The only one of those mentioned that I have set foot in, is The Black Rock, to meet SWMBO, when she was with other Choristers parents
(it has a glorious, fairly original early 1900's interior


Oddly The Black Swan isn't mentioned (been in there a few times, but 25+ years ago

 

[snorri]

View attachment 507436

Never realised you were in to that sort of thing numbnuts

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

This happens all over the place. I have a handball from the Jethart uppies and doonies which is from the year of my birth.

That's good to know. I just thought it was unique thing, but I'm wrong. Just watched some Youtube videos of similar events, they just seem as mental, they seem like they are in small towns, a bit like Workington. It's good that they still keep these traditions going, and the other ones in different towns. The coal carrying one looks awesome.

I'm going to go and watch a bit of a match this Easter. Just have to park the car nowhere near the event.