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We Entered One of Britain’s Most Brutal Illegal Events… In Pursuit of Cheese

This event is so dangerous the police tried to ban it...

The second episode of Mpora’s Eccentric Adventures series sees Fathead going to the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling Competition.

It’s one of the craziest events in the UK, one so dangerous that the Police have tried to ban it, where broken bones and shattered limbs are an annual occurrence.

Photo: Ruskin Kyle

Eccentric Adventures Episode 2: Everything You Never Needed to Know About the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling Competition

What is it? A bunch of locals gather at the top of one of the steepest hills in the West Country, then chase a cheese down it as fast as they can. The winner gets the cheese and carnage ensues.

Where is it? Cooper’s Hill, just outside Gloucester.

Who enters? Every village idiot in the West Country, plus a collection of rugby lads and meatheads happy to hurt themselves.

Honestly, the attrition rate is so high you have to have a screw loose to want to do it. Or be drunk. Most of them were drunk.

Serving soldier and local hero Chris Anderson has won no fewer than 15 cheeses over the course of 11 years. This guy is insanely quick… Photo: Ruskin Kyle

Can I enter? Anyone can rock up and enter and people come from all over to do so. There is a Cheese Rolling website that will tell you next year’s date, but because the event is so dangerous, no-one takes legal responsibility for organising it.

It’s all on public land so on an agreed date people just turn up and do it – despite the best efforts of the police to keep them away.

How did Fathead do? He made it down the hill with all limbs intact and no bones broken. Which, given that this year saw two broken ankles and a smashed collarbone, counts as a result.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next episode of Eccentric Adventures dropping on Friday 10th July. 

Directed, produced and edited by Ruskin Kyle, with additional filming by Olly Nice

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