UK cheese roll race sends competitors hurtling
Last weekend, competitors from across the globe competed in Gloucestershire, England's annual cheese roll race down Cooper’s Hill.
A centuries-old tradition with largely unknown origins, the race is a rite of passage for audacious adventurers and diehard cheese lovers alike. If you aren’t willing to throw yourself down a 1:2 gradient hill (an incline whose rise in elevation is equal to half the horizontal distance covered) for an 8 pound wheel of double gloucester, are you really living?
The day consists of scheduled men’s, women’s, and kids’ downhill and uphill races and draws thousands of spectators. (The number of races by demographic depends on the number of participants who wish to compete.)
No longer an official competition (cancelled onward from 2010 for crowd size concerns), the event runs unofficially every May with the help of police-monitored road closures and volunteer rugby players stationed at the bottom of the hill to “catch” tumbling racers.
This year, the downhill winners included two-time champion Tom Kopke, first-time racer Ava Sender Logan, Gloucester local Luke Preece, and New Zealand native Byron Smith.
The cheese wheels in question have been provided by Rod and Diana Smart of Smart family farm for the past 25 years. An award-winning outfit producing traditional, handmade gloucester cheese, Smart’s is one of only four of its kind in the world.
For those wanting a taste of this historic cheese without the peril of a (maybe victorious) downhill tumble, Smart’s special Gloucester can be ordered and shipped directly from the farm or purchased at a local outlet.
Is it just us, or has all this talk of cheese roll racing made us hungry for...cheese? Head on over to Hoard’s Dairyman Farm Creamery’s online store for your own slice of tradition.
And if you decide to hold an impromptu cheese chase, keep in mind record-setting 23-time cheese roll winner Chris Anderson’s remark: "If you’re not gonna commit, there’s no point in even doing it.”
Count us in.