Competing in the games (Photo: Josiah Robinson).
When: 3rd June 2016
Where: Dover’s Hill, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire
£: Admission costs £6.50 for adults and £3.50 for children
What is it?
On Friday 3rd June, in the heart of the Cotswolds, a series of quirky rural games will be taking place. Robert Dover’s Cotswold Olimpicks sees people competing in disciplines such as Shin Kicking and Tug O’ War in this sporting event with a difference.
Robert Dover’s Cotswold Olimpicks were first held in the 1600s as a combination of country and folk events. Robert Dover was an attorney and author who founded the games and presided over the event for the next forty years. Today the games are aptly held on Dover’s Hill, where there is a monument to Robert Dover.
Shin Kicking at the Cotswold Olimpicks (Photo: Josiah Robinson).
Robert Dover thought that exercise was necessary for the defence of the Kingdom. Some believe that Dover introduced the games as a way of bringing the rich and poor together to increase social harmony.
This year’s events will include the Champion of the Hill and Championship of the Hill. There will also be the Junior Circuit cross-country run, a Five Mile Run, Tug O’ War, Team Arm Wrestling and the popular Shin Kicking.
To win Champion of the Hill competitors must take part in the Static Jump, Spurning the Barre (a bit like Tossing the Caber), the Hammer Throw, and Putting the Shot. The more modern Championship of the Hill usually features relays involving wheelbarrows, dustbins, hay bales and water.
The Tug O’ War sees teams of 8 competing against one another in this traditional sport, and the ever popular Shin Kicking, one of the original Olimpick games, is pretty much as it sounds! Competitors cushion their shins with straw, wear white coats (to represent a shepherd’s smock) and compete in bouts.
In addition to the games there will also be entertainment in The Square.
More info: www.olimpickgames.com and www.facebook.com/CotswoldOlimpicks