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The ‘Mad’ Maldon Mud Race

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  • BRITAIN
May 26 2014

A new and improved version of the same competition I covered in 2007 when I’d just started photographing these crazy events.. No longer held in deep winter, this years competition took place on Sunday in much warmer weather, though I don’t suppose the competitors really felt the difference stuck in the mud! Just as crazy, but with about 300 entries and many more spectators.. Bank holiday weekends simply wouldn’t be the same without one, and this one is pure genius! Thank you Maldon x  

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“Tommy Trot” Beer Race

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  • BRITAIN
Apr 23 2014

The Laughing Fish Pub held it’s annual “Tommy Trot” Beer Race on Easter Monday, to kick off the summer, just as it’s been doing since 1956. Located in the pretty village of Isfield in rural East Sussex, the beer race is the main event of a full day of activities which includes an Easter Egg Hunt and the Lemonade Race – a shorter version of the beer race for the kids. So, to the details. It costs £2 to enter the “Tommy Trot”, which goes to the RNLI. Entrants have to walk through the village from the pub to the […]

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Red Bull Soapbox Race

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  • BRITAIN
Jul 15 2013

After a nine year absence, the Red Bull Soapbox Race made a spectacular return to London yesterday in an adrenaline-fuelled, madcap blaze of glory. Held at Alexandra Palace with about 20,000 spectators. 70 teams competed for the ultimate accolade of the UK’s best soapboxers creators and drivers of vehicles powered by nothing but gravity. Adrenaline junkies with nerves of steel zoomed down a 420m course at speeds of up to 52 kilometres per hour, attempting to avoid falling foul of some hazardous obstacles, most notable, the last jump ‘Big Air’ designed to give crowd-pleasing crashes galore. Infiniti Red Bull Racing […]

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Caravan Chase at Angmering

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  • BRITAIN
Apr 24 2012

Angmering Raceway in West Sussex was home to various formula of banger racing this Sunday for their third meeting of the Summer Championships. Racing included Nudge & Spin, CB (Crazy Bastard) Saloons, Hot Rods, Street Stocks, and the group I was there to see… the grand finale… demolition derby… Caravan Chase! It’s pretty straight forward in theory, 2 teams, each with one caravan and 2 back-up cars which are there to protect their own, and to smash up the opposing team’s caravan to smithereens. Not so straightforward on the track as any tactic, including reversing, or driving head on the […]

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Backward Run

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  • BRITAIN
Jul 18 2011

  There was a mixed 3km & 1km backward race with cash prizes for the first 3 places, followed by a backwards fun run/walk for those looking to raise money for their favourite charities. The course, a 1km stretch round Crystal Palace Park included a stretch of up hill, downhill, a fair few winding corners, a drop to one side of the path, bollards, signposts and litter bins, not to mention members of the general public walking their dogs. In short, plenty to trip you up when you’re not looking where you’re going! Worth the risk it would seem when Garret […]

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Pagham Pram Race

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  • BRITAIN
Dec 29 2010

Pagham Pram Race took place on Boxing Day, as it has done, continuously for the last 65 years, raising funds for the local community. It sees teams in fancy dress pushing a pram over a course of about 3 miles, stopping for half a pint outside each of 3 pubs, The Bear, The Lamb and The Kings Beach along the way. Each team goes to great lengths to dress themselves and their prams into something far more exciting, and this year saw everything from the Mafia, to The Flintstones, Thundercats, and the A team, to a couple of guys dressed […]

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The Knutsford Great Race 2010

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  • BRITAIN
Sep 14 2010

Only held once every 10 years this is a totally unique event. Featuring Original Dandy Horse Machines, Bone-Shakers and Penny Farthing Cycles dating from the middle of the 19th Century, and with riders from all over the world entering, there is nothing else quite like it. The Main event being a gruelling 3 hour Penny Farthing Race around Knutsford Moor. Consisting of up to 50 teams, whether a solo rider or a combined team of up to 4 riders, the winning rider/team is the one that completes the most complete circuits of the one kilometer circuit. Yet again Jim Brailsford […]

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Reindeer Racing World Cup

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  • ABROAD
Apr 16 2010

The remote town of Kautokeino, north of the Arctic Circle in Norway played host to the last of 7 cup races held throughout the winter season in Sápmi (the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people in N. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia) on Easter Sunday, during the Sámi Easter festival celebrations. So, the form for the adult races: 4 heats with 4 competitors in each heat. The winner of each heat going through to the ‘A Final’, while the runners-up go through to the ‘B Final’. Comparatively speaking reindeer racing is pretty similar to horse racing, there are […]

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The Peter Pan Cup

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  • BRITAIN
Dec 25 2009

9am on Christmas Day, and while most of us are busy unwrapping presents and preparing for the big roast, members of the Serpentine Swimming Club in London’s Hyde Park, prepare to swim their traditional 100 yards Christmas day swim in very cold temperatures! The race is only open to club members (most of whom are over 50 but who have acclimatised to the temperature over several months) and is swum on a handicap system, so everyone starts at different times with the weakest swimmers going first, giving everyone an equal chance of winning. I heard rumours amongst the swimmers that […]

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Braughing Wheelbarrow Race

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  • BRITAIN
Jul 20 2009

Heavy rain wasn’t to put off hundreds of spectators who lined the street on Friday evening to cheer on competitors taking part in Braughing Village’s annual Wheelbarrow Race. The rain was actually far less of a threat than I’d imagined, as everyone comes prepared for the kids, who see to it that everyone gets soaked whatever the weather. Whilst eggs and flour bombs were banned from the race, water bombs and pistols were actually on sale, and with the races focused around a ford there was no shortage of ammunition. Young and old(er) took part in three races of varying […]

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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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© Emma Wood 2021. Moral Rights Asserted. No part of Emma Wood's photographs may be copied or distributed by any means without her explicit permission.