Cheese Rolling In Gloucestershire

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Transcript of Cheese Rolling In Gloucestershire

Page 1: Cheese Rolling In Gloucestershire
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is an annual event held on the Spring Bank Holiday at Cooper's Hill, near Gloucester in the Cotswolds region of England. It is traditionally by and for the people of Brockworth - the local village, but now people from all over the world take part. The event takes its name from the hill on which it occurs.

The 2010 event has been cancelled due to safety concerns over the number of people visiting the event, but it is hoped that it will be held on the late May Bank Holiday in 2011

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From the top of the hill a round of Double Gloucester cheese is rolled, and competitors race down the hill after it. The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. In theory, competitors are aiming to catch the cheese, but since it has a one second head start and can reach speeds up to 70mph (112 km/h), enough to knock over and injure a spectator, this is unlikely.

Accurate information is hard to come by, but the tradition is at least 200 years old. Each year the event becomes more and more popular with contestants coming from all across the world to compete or even simply to spectate

"The Cheese Rollers" is also the name of the nearby pub in Shurdington, about 3 miles from Cooper's Hill, but the nearest are The Cross Hands and The Victoria (both of which are in Brockworth). Competitors will frequent these venues for some pre-event Dutch courage or discussion of tactics, and after the event for some convalescence.

Cooper's Hill is also a stop on the Cotswold Way.

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The cheese used in the event is Double Gloucester, a hard cheese typically manufactured in cylindrical blocks. The current supplier is local cheesemaker Diana Smart, who has supplied the cheese since 1988.

During the Second World War rationing was introduced, preventing the use of a cheese in the event. Consequently, from 1941 to 1954 a wooden "cheese" was used instead with a piece of cheese in a hollow space in the centre of the wooden replica

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Due to the steepness and uneven surface of the hill there are usually a number of injuries, ranging from sprained ankles to broken bones and concussion. A first aid service is provided by the local St John Ambulance (Gloucester, Cheltenham and Stroud Divisions) at the bottom of the hill, with a volunteer rescue group on hand to carry down to them any casualties who do not end up at the bottom through gravity. A number of ambulance vehicles will attend the event, since there is invariably at least one and often several more injuries requiring hospital treatment. Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling has been summarised as "twenty young men chase a cheese off a cliff and tumble 200 yards to the bottom, where they are scraped up by paramedics and packed off to hospital". The race of 2005 was delayed while the ambulances returned from the hospital, all of them having been required to transport casualties from previous races. Nevertheless, it was one of the most popular events in recent years, with many more participants than were able to run in the four races.

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Dave Allen is widely credited to bringing cheese rolling to a wider audience than just locals, when he visited during his 1970's series, Dave Allen At Large. After that it attracted ever increasing levels of TV coverage.

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Cheese Rolling was prominently featured in the first episode of the (UK) Five (channel) series "Rory & Paddy's Great British Adventure", broadcast on 13 August 2008, and was described as "the grandaddy of weird sports" by the titular Rory McGrath and Paddy McGuinness

Cheese rolling appeared in the television series ER, Season 14 Episode 8, "Coming Home", where a motley bunch of cheese rolling enthusiasts (with accents of dubious accuracy) have a dispute, allowing Morris to demonstrate the Judgement of Solomon

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The Cheese Rolling festival was briefly mentioned in episode 6x03 of Gilmore Girls "The Ungraduate" in which Logan Huntzberger speaks of his time in Gloucester with his friends Finn and Collin. Logan shows his bandaged hand where he had injured himself during the cheese rolling festival.

In 2008, the event was attended by a Brazilian comic duo, Vesgo and Silvio, from the TV show Pânico na TV, although the couple failed to make it to the bottom of the hill.

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Cheese rolling is an online game on the virtual pet site Neopets and carries the same rules.

An article in the magazine Muse has covered cheese rolling.

The Maccabees video for their song 'Can You Give It' features the 2009 event and winner.

On July 28, 2009, the ESPN program E:60 covered a five-race event at Cooper's Hill which took place in May, 2009.

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