TARGET 090617

Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling



8.jpg
Oops!!!
The annual Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake was held in Gloucestershire on Monday, May 25th. The event dates back 200 years, perhaps more.
5.jpg
This picture was taken with the camera held horizontally.
Brave souls competed in downhill and uphills races. The competitors raced down the hill after an 8 pound, round Double Gloucester Cheese. The hill is steep and injuries are common but despite the risks this tradition is growing more and more popular with each year.

1.jpg 2.jpg
Five thousands spectators turned out for Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling 2009 this May bank holiday, and SoGlos.com once again caught all the falls and nail-biting tumbles, in a video shot safely from the sidelines!


3.jpg 4.jpg
Veteran Brockworth competitor Chris Anderson raced to victory not once but twice in two of the four men’s downhill races this year – cementing his celebrity status and garnering cheers of support from locals, in what he said would be his final year of racing. Scott Beaven from Wales and Josh Geitz from Australia were also both victorious, while New Zealander Michelle Kokiri took the women’s title in 2009.

For the uninitiated, dating back to at least the 1800s, the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake is an annual Gloucestershire event which involves hordes of fearless competitors chasing a weighty 8lb Double Gloucester cheese, handmade by Gloucester cheesemaker Diana Smart, down a death-defyingly-steep hill.


7.jpg
The cheese
The slope on Cooper’s Hill in Gloucester, the eponymous setting for the world-famous event, is in fact so steep that very few contenders manage to stay on their feet, instead tumbling head-over-heels down the hill in a desperate effort to catch the dairy prize – which travels at approximately 70 miles per hour.

While the weathermen promised it would be the hottest day of the year, and some spectators did indeed sport sunburnt noses at the end of the afternoon, the sun remained largely allusive all afternoon. But, the short showers did soften the ground for the falls, of which there were plenty, and those who were drenched in torrential rain standing on Cooper’s Hill this time last year were certainly not complaining.

Despite the scraped elbows, muddy bums and bandages, the smiles at the end of the afternoon said it all, the Cheese Rolling was a huge success in 2009. If the popularity of SoGlos.com’s videos of the event are anything to go by – having now been seen by more than 5 million people worldwide, the 2010 event is only set to attract even more ‘brave’ competitors than ever before.


FEEDBACK MAP

Feedback map

If you gained information in your session which was not covered in the feedback, please take a look at these sites:


YouTube

Click here for more photos & information from Wikipedia



Many thanks to Ray McClure for suggesting this target, as well as doing the programming for the page.