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Watching our favourite football team on the weekend, catching a spot of Wimbledon in winter, indulging in a day of cricket in summer and heading to the rugby stadium every so often – there’s no doubt South Africa is a sport-loving nation.
But even the most ardent fan among us might raise an eyebrow or two at these weird and wacky activities.
Cheese rolling
Origin: Gloucester, England, 15th century
Equipment: A large wheel of double Gloucester cheese
Competitors can’t get cheesed off if they take a tumble during this sport – it’s all part of the fun and games. A bunch of people racing down a steep hill, chasing a round of cheese that weighs about 4kg is essentially what this sport is about. Contestants mostly tumble down the uneven slope in the hopes of getting to the finish line first.
The venue was traditionally Cooper’s Hill near Gloucester, England, but the competition has since spread far beyond these fields.
“It’s just one of those crazy British traditions,” says Chris Anderson (34), who has won the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling race many times since he was a teenager. He’s “only” broken a wrist, bruised a kidney and once suffered a concussion, he adds.
Egg-throwing
Origin: Lincolnshire, England, 14th century
Equipment: Chicken’s eggs
In the 1300s, an English abbot was the only one in his village with chickens and he distributed eggs to parishioners to encourage church attendance. But when floods prevented them from reaching the building, he and his fellow monks had to throw eggs across the water to parishioners.
These days people have fun with egg-throwing and there’s been a World Egg Throwing Federation since 2004.
It takes great skill – in 1978 American Johnny Dell Foley threw an egg 98,5m. It was caught by Keith Thomas without it breaking. This Guinness world record still stands.
Slap fighting
Origin: Probably Russia, sometime in the 21st century
Equipment: Flat hand
People slapping each other sounds like “what you’d get if you let 13-year-old boys invent a new sport”, says US sports columnist Ben Fowlkes. Yet this is exactly what it is – two people taking turns to slap each other.
The cheek is the main contact area – for safety reasons temples and ears are off limits and competitors wear mouth guards and protective earplugs.
A slap fight consists of several rounds in which each participant receives a smack per round.
The winner is declared if someone throws in the towel, if an opponent can’t remain upright or if they aren’t able to continue 30 seconds after being slapped.
Judges can also make a final call or disqualify candidates who break the rules.
Lawnmower racing
Origin: America in 1963
Equipment: Self-propelled lawnmower, racing track, crash helmet
Cutting grass can be a chore, but these lawnmowers are anything but a source of frustration. Lawnmower racing started in the town of Twelve Mile, Indiana, when residents started an annual Fourth of July race based on Nascar: The Twelve Mile 500.
There’s no danger with these low-key racers – the lawnmowers reach only 50 km/h and the blades have been removed. It spread from Indiana to other US states and now lawnmower racing can be found in many other parts of the world.
Mud-pit belly diving
Origin: America, 1996
Equipment: None
It’s like belly flopping into a pool – except with mud. This muckily messy sport is believed to have been started at the so-called Redneck Games in Georgia in the US, where watermelon-seed spitting and toiletseat tossing also featured.
Spectators were the judges and the winner was the one with the most spectacular stomach bomb.
Although Georgia’s Redneck Games died in 2012, mud-pit belly diving lived on and remains a hit at unusual sports events from Texas to Canada.
Competitive sleeping
Origin: Believed to have started in California at the turn of the century.
Equipment: Bed
The “low-impact sport” is more than just a nap. Competitive sleeping, sometimes also known as sleep racing, was first practised in 1998 when the Californian Sleeping Club started a Competitive Sleep League. In Spain, where a nap after lunch is a daily tradition, a national siesta championship took place in Madrid in 2010. Contestants had to doze off in the middle of a shopping mall for at least 20 minutes.
Competitive sleep competitions have various criteria – how long you sleep, how soundly you sleep, how quickly you fall asleep, or a combination of these – but all are serious about getting shut-eye.
Bog snorkelling
Origin: Wales, 1976
Equipment: Snorkel, diving goggles, flippers/swimming fins
Swimming 110m in a water-filled trench made in a peat bog doesn’t sound nearly as relaxing as a snorkel session near a tropical island – but bog-snorkelling competitors wouldn’t swop their muddy mess for the world.
The first World Bog Snorkelling Championship was held in 1985 and has since become an annual institution at the Waen Rhydd peat bog near the town of Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales.
The only way to move forward is to propel yourself using your flippers – regular swimming will get you disqualified.
Unicycle polo
Origin: Germany, 1925
Equipment: Unicycle, mallet, wooden ball
A polo horse can easily cost about R850 000, but this version won’t hurt your pocket as much as the elite version of the sport. All you need is a unicycle, which costs about R600.
The only real hurdle is you must learn how to master a unicycle and find somewhere such as a parking lot that can serve as your playground.
These days there are dozens of unicycle polo clubs and organisations worldwide.
Extreme ironing
Origin: England, 1997
Equipment: Iron, ironing board, clothes
When Phil Shaw from Leicester, England, came home from work 25 years ago, he was looking forward to going rock climbing. But a pile of wrinkled clothes stared him in the face and Phil had only one option: iron while climbing.
He took a long extension cord and his ironing to the backyard and when a housemate asked what he was doing he responded, “Extreme ironing.”
Phil’s new sport became popular. The craze spread thanks to a 2003 documentary called Extreme Ironing: Pressing for Victory, which aired in the UK shortly after the first Extreme Ironing World Championship in Germany.
A few more odd ones
Rock-paper-scissors: The game is taken so seriously in some places that players battle it out at championship level. There’s an American, European, Canadian, online and world championship overseen by the World Rock Paper Scissors Association.
Sepak takraw aka kick volleyball: This is like traditional volleyball, but you can’t use your hands or arms – only your feet, knees, chest, head and face. It originated in Malaysia and is practised across Southeast Asia.
Zorbing: This niche sport originated in New Zealand. People curl their bodies up like hamsters and roll down hills or slopes in giant transparent balls.
SOURCES: BBC, CNN, ENTERTAINMENT.HOWSTUFFWORKS.COM, TOPENDSPORTS.COM, THEGUARDIAN.COM, BLEACHERREPORT.COM, RANKER.COM, VICE.COM, YOUTUBE, BRITANNICA.COM
