site logosite logo
  • Portfolio
  • Book
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
SIDEBAR

Totnes Orange Races

0 comments
  • BRITAIN
Aug 20 2009

Every year the Totnes Elizabethan Society host a series of tricky and sticky races down the town’s steep high street involving the humble orange. This year it was held on Tuesday, to coincide with the Elizabethan Market. The idea is to be first through the finishing tape, with your orange, or at least part of it, having kicked or thrown it ahead of you whilst running the course. You don’t have to finish with the same orange you started with, as there are no rules to prevent competitors from pinching each other’s, and in all honesty it’s not as though […]

READ MORE

Three Horseshoes Wheelie Bin Race

0 comments
  • BRITAIN
Jul 13 2009

What have Greased Lightning,  a locomotive, a barge, a tractor and a bath tub got in common? Why they’re all ‘major pieces of machinery. Systematic, hydromatic, ultramatic.’ They’re wheelie bins, and they were just a few of 14 clapped out old things to be given a new life – to compete in the Three Horseshoes Wheelie Bin Race on Saturday. Teams went to great lengths to win the title of fastest bin, best bin, and best dressed team in what is basically an 800 yard dash up the road and back, with a few stops to neck a half pint […]

READ MORE

World Snail Racing Championships

0 comments
  • BRITAIN
Jul 20 2008

About 200 snails slugged it out to be fastest over the finishing line on Saturday at the World Snail Racing Championships, in Congham, Norfolk. Heats were held throughout the afternoon, with each winner earning a place in the grand final at the end of the day. This was the only race to be timed, and aptly with the power of a McLaren engine, the winning snail named Heikki Kovalainen speeded over the course in 3 mins 2 secs, taking home the silver tankard stuffed with lettuce leaves. It was a fast time, but it didn’t come close to threatening the […]

READ MORE

Mince Pie Eating Contest

0 comments
  • BRITAIN
Nov 20 2007

Turkey may not be the only festive fare in shortage this Christmas as hungry competitors munched their way through hundreds of mince pies at the Wookey Hole Big Eat Mince Pie Eating Contest, in Somerset. Twelve handpicked competitors from Britain, both professional fast-eaters known as ‘gurgitators’ and some members of the public who fancy their pie-eating abilities, competed against each with the aim to eat the most pies over a 10 minute session. With a first prize of £1000 and a chance to get into the Guiness Book Of Records, it’s not to be scoffed at! This years winner, 34 […]

READ MORE

The BLMRA British Grand Prix (lawnmowing!)

0 comments
  • BRITAIN
Oct 08 2007

Adrenalin junkies gathered this weekend to fire up their lawnmowers for the last time this season for the British Grand Prix at the Bat and Ball Pub in Wisborough Green, West Sussex. At first sight, watching screaming, back-firing and almost-out-of-control lawnmowers zooming round the lawn at speeds of up to 60 miles an hour may seem a little mad, but it seems like a much better alternative to me than staying at home to cut the grass! Founded in 1973, the The British Lawn Mower Racing Association (BLMRA) still sticks to its origins as a non-profit making organisation (any profits […]

READ MORE

World Hen Racing Championships

2 comments
  • BRITAIN
Aug 06 2007

Derbyshire hens are resting today after competing in the World Hen Racing Championships this weekend. Held at the Barley Mow Pub in Bonsall, about 30 of the worlds fastest chickens run along a track to strict international criteria. They must have both feet on the starting line and fowl play (pecking/fighting) is not allowed. There was the occasional battle, with hens receiving yellow and subsequently red cards if they didn’t pluck up their ideas. Most were well behaved though, and in first place and achieving the title ‘The World’s Fastest Hen’ was ‘Ever-Ready’, a rescued battery hen trained and raced […]

READ MORE

Share

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!

Categories

  • ABROAD (11)
  • BRITAIN (135)
  • IN THE MEDIA (5)

Recent Posts

  • Classic Blue Pantone Colour of the Year 2020
  • Many Happy Retrieves
  • Living Coral Pantone Colour of the Year 2019
  • Fieldsports photography

Archives

  • December 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (2)
  • November 2018 (2)
  • September 2018 (1)
  • July 2018 (2)
  • June 2018 (1)
  • September 2017 (2)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • December 2015 (1)
  • November 2015 (1)
  • May 2014 (2)
  • April 2014 (2)
  • January 2014 (1)
  • December 2013 (1)
  • November 2013 (1)
  • September 2013 (2)
  • July 2013 (1)
  • June 2013 (1)
  • May 2013 (2)
  • April 2013 (2)
  • January 2013 (2)
  • October 2012 (1)
  • September 2012 (2)
  • July 2012 (1)
  • June 2012 (3)
  • May 2012 (1)
  • April 2012 (2)
  • January 2012 (2)
  • December 2011 (1)
  • September 2011 (1)
  • August 2011 (2)
  • July 2011 (3)
  • June 2011 (1)
  • May 2011 (5)
  • April 2011 (1)
  • March 2011 (2)
  • February 2011 (1)
  • December 2010 (3)
  • November 2010 (1)
  • October 2010 (1)
  • September 2010 (1)
  • August 2010 (2)
  • July 2010 (3)
  • June 2010 (2)
  • May 2010 (1)
  • April 2010 (1)
  • March 2010 (1)
  • February 2010 (1)
  • December 2009 (1)
  • September 2009 (2)
  • August 2009 (3)
  • July 2009 (2)
  • June 2009 (4)
  • March 2009 (1)
  • February 2009 (1)
  • January 2009 (1)
  • December 2008 (3)
  • November 2008 (1)
  • October 2008 (1)
  • August 2008 (2)
  • July 2008 (3)
  • June 2008 (4)
  • March 2008 (3)
  • February 2008 (3)
  • January 2008 (2)
  • December 2007 (4)
  • November 2007 (3)
  • October 2007 (4)
  • September 2007 (4)
  • August 2007 (5)
  • July 2007 (6)
  • June 2007 (4)
  • May 2007 (2)
  • April 2007 (3)
  • November 2006 (1)
  • October 2006 (1)

© Emma Wood 2025. Moral Rights Asserted. No part of Emma Wood's photographs may be copied or distributed by any means without her explicit permission.