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Home > Alternative Sport > Shin kicking, arm wrestling and wheelbarrow races at the Cotswold Olimpicks

Shin kicking, arm wrestling and wheelbarrow races at the Cotswold Olimpicks

By Caroline King - May 19, 2016Posted in : Alternative Sport

Robert Dover's Cotswold Olimpicks - Photo: Josiah Robinson

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.

Robert Dover's Cotswold Olimpicks - Photo: Josiah Robinson

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

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Tagged With: Cotswold Olimpicks, Gloucestershire events, Robert Dover's Olimpick Games

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