Back in my home county, we have a few interesting sports. One of them involves rolling a wheel of cheese down a particularly steep hill and having a crowd of people chase after it. It’s dangerous, it’s hilarious, and it’s the best way to spend a sunny West Country day with a few pints of hard cider.
Every year, I am amazed at the danger people put their bodies in participating in the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling. The 180-meter slope is rutted and full of divots. It is at a staggering 50-degree angle, and not forgiving in the slightest.
The cheese in question is a 4-kilo wheel of Double Gloucester. It flies down the hill like a rocket and has often injured people waiting at the bottom. The first person to reach the bottom of the hill, however they manage it, wins the cheese. Honestly, it’s a cheese worth putting your body on the line for.
Every year, I see people somersaulting down the steep Gloucester hill after the wheel of cheese. This year, a man dressed as a wizard won the hearts of the baying crowds as he flipped tens of meters down the cheese rolling hill.
Hill Wizard Wins Wheel Of Cheese With Stunning Somersaulting
Footage from this year’s event shows one particular contestant going all out for the win. As he runs down the hill, dressed as a wizard, of course, he takes a tumble, somersaulting meters down the hill. The fall looks fatal as he flies, but, as always seems to be the case, he was absolutely fine and won the cheese.
People from the event reported that our flying cheese wizard was in the local pub only hours later. He had his cheese, and I doubt he paid for a single cider for the rest of the night. He put his body on the line for his cheese love, and it paid off.
There have been many years of cheese rolling tradition in Gloucester. Some people come back year after year, punishing themselves by throwing their bodies down the West Country hill. The compilation videos are worth checking out. It’s incredible what the body can be put through.