It’s hard to think of a danger sport that might involve the use of cheese. Hard, but not impossible

It’s hard to think of a danger sport that might involve the use of cheese. Hard, but not impossible. There’s Cheese Rolling, for one.

The tradition has been taking place at Cooper’s Hill near the Cotswolds village of Brockworth in the UK for the past 200 years.

Each May bank holiday – which, unlike ours, hits at the end of the month – a round, hard Double Gloucester cheese is thrown from the top of the hill, gaining speeds of up to 100km per hour and the contestants run after it.

Except that running does not quite describe their descent and hill certainly does the topography an injustice.

The gradient is so steep that in some places it hits a ratio of 1:1 and in others is actually concave. The result is that participants end up tumbling down 200m at breakneck speed. Literally.

On several occasions the event has been cancelled due to the number of injuries incurred the previous year. On these fallow years, a nominated local will roll the cheese down alone simply to keep up the tradition.

Even spectators go at their peril. Not alone do some fall every year while trying to get a good position along the side of the hill, but the risk of being tumbled into is high.

Standing behind the finish line is a particular hazard, even though teams of burly volunteers are positioned to catch the participants before they mow into the crowd.

The only thing moving faster than the tumblers are the ambulances relaying them to AE. And the prize for winning this life-threatening event? Hard cheese.

cheese-rolling.co.uk