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Sark Sheep Race

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Jul 11 2008

Sheep, complete with teddy bear or fluffy toy rabbit jockeys safely harnessed to their backs, raced over a set course on the weekend at the annual Sheep Races held on the Island of Sark, in the Channel Islands.

With the inevitable unpredictability of the sheep, chaos ensued as they instinctively huddled together before being released from their pen, only to rise to the cheering crowds and chase ahead, by charging at great speed over the course towards the finish line. Even the hurdles were elegantly cleared, which has to be attributed to the hours of coaching put in by their trainers Dave & collie Tess.

Sheep are sponsored and therefore named by local businesses. Examples include ‘Ewe & Me’ (Sark weddings), ‘Ew-Nicycle’ (Avenue Cycle Hire), ‘PC out of memory buy more RAM’ (Avenue Computers) and ‘Keep Off The Grass’ (Sark Gardening Services). Bookmakers, ‘Dodgy Dave’ and ‘Honest Jim’ were on hand to take bets and all the money raised went to subsidise the cost of prescribed medicine for Sark residents.

A frolicking good time had by all.

 

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About this blog

The vast majority of posts in this blog are about quirky & eccentric competitions & festivals. I started it in 2006 in France with a competition I’ll never forget. Where contestants battle it out to become the World Champion Pig Squeeler, or ‘Cri du Cochon’. I had little knowledge back then of quite how far my pursuit of these kind of events would lead me. I’ve travelled all over Britain (and occasionally further afield) to capture our curiosities and quirks. There’s nothing uniquely eccentric about the British, you’ll find people all over the world up to all sorts of weird and wonderful activities, but we do have a remarkable capacity to embrace the madness. ‘A Brit Different’ is the book that was born from it, my labour of love! So what next? There’s always something interesting going on, so watch this space, only time will tell!

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