UK Travel Blog

In a recent discussion at UKSeries Blog HQ it was proposed that the host nation of the Olympics should be allowed to introduce a few of the “local custom” sports to show off just how quirky they could be.

For those in the United Kingdom this would be a hard task – not having enough quirky sports, but choosing whether snail racing, clog cobbing or worm charming should be included especially with the fierce rivalries between regions of the countries.

Naturally Gurning should be included, although your writer might have a small bias there as it evolved in Cumbria, but we’re sure the The Biggest Liar In The World would be able to convince the Olympic organisers that bog snorkelling was being practised by the ancient Greek’s 4000 years ago…honest gov’.

After much debate, argument and worries about starting a new civil war, here are at least some of the sports we thought would be worthy of the Olympics 2012.

1) Watching paint dry might seem to be rather a wildcard choice, but considering the number of people who utter the phrase “I’d rather watch paint dry”, it would seem this one could become very very popular.

The task will require significant mental strength or at least that’s what the organisers of the world’s first “World Watching Paint Dry Championships” claim, but we’re pretty sure we can find some really boring people who’ll send our contestants into a zombie-like state…at least until that becomes banned under “external influences” regulations, like doping in athletics.

To the rest of the world we say bring it on, although secretly we’re a little worried about the Russians who seem to be able to do the stoney faced look rather well – could be the new cold war Olympic rivalry returns?

2) Snail racing could be a good place to find contestants for the paint drying competitions as anyone who’s “quirky” enough to watch a snail for half an hour move up a course towards a lettuce has to capable of staying awake during the previous competition.

Snail racing itself is a very competitive sport and there have even been alligations of doping although we’re not exactly sure whether feeding the snail organic vs non-organic lettuce would really have a significant effect. Of course one part of the Olympics requires lots of sponsorship money, but there’s ample opportunity here from the various supermarket brands proving their spinach makes you go faster (don’t think about that too much!) to Florette who try to make lettuce interesting with their various rather curious adverts.

3) Stinging nettle eating is a sport we’re sure we’ll excel at although there might be some competition from our European neighbours. However who else in the world would be crazy enough to try to eat these plants, or even produce a tea from them – see we’re sure fire winners!

The whole sport essentially started, at least according to those who take part, when two Dorset farmers had an argument about who’s nettles were the tallest, with one farmer declaring that if his weren’t the tallest he’d eat them. Presumably that’s how it turned out and thus the competition was born. The world championship nettle eating competition now takes place annually at the Bottle Inn within the small village of Marshwood, Dorset.

4) Egg Jarping is a sport even I’d never heard of until now, but in essence it is similar to conkers except you use hard boiled eggs…a natural progression, we guess. However since this County Durham sport is still fairly underground and presumably takes place in sheds and abandoned coal mines around County Durham we can be pretty sure no one else will even attempt to field a team – unless some sneaky country tries to send in spies in the form of pigeon racing enthusiasts.

Surprisingly, the people of Peterlee have managed to keep all hints about this contest secret, at least until now, but they still have one public showing each Easter Sunday at Peterlee Cricket And Social Club. Naturally most of us are at that point stuck in traffic, queuing to get into some visitor attraction or down the pub being one of the busiest holidays of the year, so the people of Peterlee would be perfect to sneak into the Olympic squad.

Who says the Olympics only takes place in London…

5) Black Pudding Throwing allows us to redress the balance of the London vs rest of the country balance for the UK Olympics in 2012 as this rather curious sport takes place around various locations in Lancashire. The idea like all good ideas is very simple – you hurl a Black Pudding at a Yorkshire Pudding which is sat on the roof of a pub and presumably the one who dislodges the black pudding is declared the winner.

We might have some competition from a number of European nations on the throwing the pudding while trying not to partake in the temptations of the pub, but even if we lost this one it’s for sure got to be one of the best Olympic venues around.

In case you’re wondering:

- Apparently according to legend this began during the War of the Roses when parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire were at war, and they ran out of ammo. So with each of these being popular foodstuffs in the aforementioned counties it seemed a natural way to settle things….and of course the fact that there was a pub there had nothing to do with this we’re sure.

- Black pudding ingredients you might want to lookup on Wikipedia Black pudding page but we suggest only well after you’ve had your dinner. And yes, it does taste really nice assuming you were brought up in the northern parts of England (or if you like Haggis).

More to come: There are lots more sports we can include here so watch out for part 2 of this series…

A few more useful UK links:
Tourist attractions from around the UK (including quirky locations)
Hotels and B&Bs in Britain
Holiday cottages and apartments in Britain