On behalf of the UK, we will not be explaining or indeed apologising for any of this 😂

I won the local Gurning competition this year! No one was more shocked than me as I was unaware this competition was taking place.

You missed out the sport of Ferret-Legging, in which men put live ferrets down their trousers and compete with each other to see who can keep them there the longest. And yes, I'm not joking.

You mentioned Cheese Rolling, but there is also Wife Carrying, Tar Barrel Racing, Pancake Tossing, Cornish Hurling, Lymm Duck Race, the Worls Stone Skimming Championships, the World Conker Championship, the Poohsticks Champioship, the Man V Horse Marathon, Tin Bath Racing, Snail Racing, the World Gravy Wrestling Championship, the International Birdman Competition and Worm Charming to name a few more.

I was born, bred and buttered in Henley on Thames. Never mind the Regatta, which is for toffs, the highlight of our year was the Whitsun Pram Race. Two men. One dressed as a baby. One dressed as a mother. Caricature obviously. A classical carriage pram was very necessary. A number of pubs were chosen to form a course. At the start, the baby drank half a pint in the pub. Then climbed in the pram. The mother pushed the pram to the next pub and had half a pint. Then changed places with the baby. And so on. Remember, this is a race. Maybe 20 or so teams. Six or seven pubs. The chaos was brilliant.

Wellie throwing is usually called Wellie Wanging and appears to have originated in the West Country of England in the 1970s, and rapidly became a popular activity at village fêtes and fundraising events across Britain. The sport is now played in many countries, including Australia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Russia. Depending on local custom, different rules are applied to the sport. In parts of Somerset, for example, the boot is filled with water before being thrown. Some competitions allow a run up before releasing the boot, while others require the throw to be made from a standing position-which may be enforced by making the thrower stand in an empty dustbin. In Welbury, North Yorkshire, the size of the boot thrown must be large enough to comfortably fit the foot of the thrower. There's also the English game of dwile flonking (also dwyle flunking) is an East Anglian pub sport, involving two teams of twelve players, each taking a turn to dance around the other while attempting to avoid a beer-soaked dwile (cloth) thrown by the non-dancing team. "Dwile" is a knitted floor cloth, from the Dutch dweil, meaning "mop", with the same meaning in East Anglian dialect, and "flonk" is probably a corruption of flong, an old past tense of fling.

I loved how you said the word Gloucester. The letter U is silent, so you pronounce it Gloster.

I’ve long said that shin kicking is the responsibility of all citizens of voting age. All politicians, no matter which party, no matter whether from right wing or left, regardless of country, need to be kicked in the …um .. shins. HARD. To remind them that they aren’t the boss and that they work for the people who elected them, not the rich and entitled

It's all about keeping community adhesion.

In these times when mainstream sports are dominated by commercial interests, it is reassuring that we have retained these traditional sports where anyone can compete and that are very much rooted in a strong local community.

Where I was born (Newport Pagnell) as part of the yearly summer carnival there used to be a wheelbarrow race where men would push their wives between a course of 12 pubs in town and they would have to drink a pint in each one. Old towns have crazy competitions that have developed over many hundreds of years, it's just what happens away from the big cities.

There's an expression mothers say to kids: 'Don't pull faces like that, the wind might change and you'll be stuck like that!'

Can't believe you missed the English game of dwile flonking, it's an East Anglian pub sport, involving two teams of twelve players, each taking a turn to dance around the other while attempting to avoid a beer-soaked dwile thrown by the non-dancing team 😂😂😂

My Mum took part in Wellie Throwing at my Parent/Teacher Sports Day once where she managed to release it backwards into the crowd of spectators. This was over forty years ago and we've never let her forget it. They never held the event again either...

I've taken part in the stinging nettle competition, they're a bit "spicy" if you don't keep your mouth moist, but after a while they're pretty fine, they're very bitter. The moisture from water or cider/lager usually takes the sting off the nettle so its safe. Back in the past people used to make teas from nettle leaves which tastes quite nice

I live in ottery st mary where the run flaming tar barrels through the street. Only been once as it was terrifying! My sons still come back from across the country to "see the barrels" as it is world famous and deeply cherished by the locals. The insurance is beyond astronimical posxibly due to a few nasty accidents. The marshalls dont take prisoners. As kids can do it i think from a very young age ?7 or 10,, I was most freaked out when they came home from school the day after and proudly announced "x burnt off all the hair on the back of his head and b has got burns on the back of his neck! " Only true Ottregians would understand 😅

Imagine a lot of these happened at the old country fairs between farming communities & villages! No telly back then, had to make your own entertainment! Thanks Alanna! 🙏🙏

Another one down here in Dorset is knob tossing at the annual Knobfest, a Dorset Knob is a kind of biscuit, you grab a Knob and see how far you can toss it. There is also the legendary, often brutal and ancient Atherstone Ball game.

I've had a go at Welly Throwing and it is surprisingly difficult because the whole thing is out of balance. Our Town use to have Pram racing where one person male or female would dress as the Mother and the other the Baby. Then race and drink at what was then the 10 Pubs in the Town along the roads. Once it stopped bringing an event like that back is totally impossible due to modern day insurance. It use to raise Thousands of pounds for Cancer research for the 22 year period it lasted.

The whole Knaresborough, Harrogate Ripon , Pateley Bridge area is stunningly beautiful.

Here in Cheshire we have an annual pancake race where people toss pancakes whilst running with a frying pan. It is taken very seriously! (By the way it's Gloss-ter)

They all seem a good idea in the pub but then you have to follow them through which usually means incorperating a pub crawl into the event so everybody is happy

The best way to do a shin kicking competition is to for the competitors to take turns. You go first, kicking your opponent as hard as you possibly can, then walk away saying “I give up, you win”

Alanna,you've missed Kent's very own World Custard Pie throwing championship

Fun video! When you said bog snorkeling, for some reason I pictured the toilet diving scene from Trainspotting…

These gurners' parents clearly never told them that if the wind changes, they'll stay like that. And if you think these are fun, wife carrying is worth looking into. And Finland has the funniest one of the lot - the Air Guitar World Championships!

Still time to attend the black pudding throwing. Its on 10th September and Rammy is a nice place to visit.

I was disqualified from the wellie throwing competition as my wife was still wearing it. When I exclaimed where in the rules does it say no one should be in the wellie when it's thrown, it was on page 1, rule 1.

In Gawthorpe, West Yorkshire, there is a coal carrying championship every year. It happens annually on Easter Monday. It involves running over a kilometre uphill, with a 50kg sack of coal and began 60 years ago as a bet in a pub. It's men, women and children that are involved and it is a real test of strength and stamina. I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of videos out there - just type Gawthorpe Coal Race.

Mother nature provides its own antidote to nettle stings. Usually, within the vicinity of nettles a large broad leafed plant called Dock (coincidentally) grows. Tearing a few Dock leaves off and rubbing the area you've been nettled with them can produce some relief.

Born and raised in Old Windsor, every Christmas there was the barrel rolling race. 2 teams, 1 beer barrel each, race between The Lord Nelson and The Bells of Ouzely pubs using the village back roads)

I feel like the majority of these games originated from drunken shenanigans lol 🍻

I remember that gurning champ, as a kid I tried to copy him and my mum told me to stop or my face will be stuck like that (maybe it did in the end, I can’t tell). We did welly throwing at school sports day. I once let go of the welly far too late and it landed on my team behind me 😭😭💀 This was hilarious, Alanna. Absolutely loved it. Cheers!

The really weird thing is that, the inside of your mouth is totally immune to nettles. So if you're able to get them through your lips without them touching, you won't get stung. I really don't know how it works but you can eat nettles with impunity as long as nothing on the outside of your body touches them.

I used to work with a guy who was not only the World Flat Cap chucking champion but also held the World record.

Isle of Man TT Motor Cycle race! You might think, how surprising can it be, surely just motorcycles racing. But there's a reason it doesn't take place anywhere else!

Hi Alanna, you should check out the International Birdman Competition😎 As much as I love listening to your accents and pronunciation of british place names, I thought I'd help you out a tad. Gloucester is pronounced........ Gloss-ter Knaresborough is pronounced.........nairs-brah I noticed you didn't attempt the place in Wales😆 Great video, looking forward to part 2.

You didn't mention the Maldon mud race! It's held every year at Maldon in Essex. Yes, where the Maldon sea salt comes from. Great video.

I was born and lived in the UK for 36 years. I had no idea of some of these competitions. Thanks Alana for giving me something new to learn today ♥️😁😁

Canada has the CFL (Canadian Football League) which is awesome to watch...🏈🇨🇦

The River Nidd at Knaresborough is a lot of things: quite wide, reasonably deep, often cold, but it certainly isn't fast running. You only have to see video of the rowing boats gliding sedately along it, to realise the stretch that runs through Knaresborough is calm if nothing else.

I love the earnestness of all the competitors saying, it’s not just this, it’s so much more! 😂😂😂

Just for your info, on the same day as the cheese rolling every year there is also the Tetbury Woolsack Races. A wool sack full of sheep’s fleas’s and there’s a course through the village of Tetbury (near Princess Anne place ) down the hill and back up again. This is to simulate the efforts of the workers of years ago who, when the local flocks were sheered by hand had to take the sacks of wool to be weighed. The whole village is opened with stalls etc. all the pubs are open all day - Of Course! The competitors come from around the area but also further afield. I’ve even seen a team of Ghurkas take part. It is very strenuous work carrying all that weight and they ha smaller sacks for youngsters to have a go. Oh! One more thing a traditional name of throwing a wellington used to be called “Welly Wanging”. Also near the end of the month it is the Tewkesbury ancient battle re-enactment with jousting, sword fighting oh and cider and beer drinking of course.

Ah yes, Gurning. Not widely practiced, but quite well known. The "horse collar" is locally called a braffin in Cumbria. So the competition is officially "Gurning through a Braffin" - Tim

Hi, Alanna FYI Egremont Crab Fair 2023 (Egremont is about as far from Kent as you can go and still be in England !) The fun starts on Friday September 15th at 5pm on the Main Street with stalls, amusements and the ever-popular Dancing in the Street. The fun continues on Saturday 16th September with events from 9am on the Main Street featuring stalls, street entertainers, stage acts and a classic vehicle display as well as the traditional riding of the boundary on horseback, climbing the greasy pole and the parade of the apple cart where apples are distributed to the assembled crowds. The climax of the Crab Fair happens on Saturday evening from 6pm in Egremont Market Hall featuring local entertainers, a junior talent competition, traditional horn blowing and hunting/comic songs and then the world-famous gurning competitions for juniors and seniors, with the winners of the senior competitions being crowned the World Gurning Champion.

I'm pretty sure that in most cases the story begins with "so one day when it was raining heavily outside, a group of men were stuck in the pub feeling bored..." Robot Wars was the same thing in principle. Silly, requiring community effort, and taken much too seriously.

Can't forget James Acaster's description of the Squirt competition held in his hometown near Christmas, iirc.

Didn't go through the comments so sorry (no I'm not Canadian) if I'm repeating something. There are the 'World Pea Shooter' championships and 'Worm charming'. we've also 'borrowed' Dutch dyke vaulting. (For those confused, a 'dyke' where i live is a V shaped channel to drained water form the land .)

I once stayed at a hotel in the UK and one evening the only thing on TV was lawn bowling. I had never seen lawn bowling before. I didn't know lawn bowling was so exciting!

Another great video Alanna, & your impressions cracked me up !😂👍

In Chester we have the dragon raft race. It's like the bed race but all on the river Dee and we use water cannon and flour on each other. Less of a race, more of a war.

A couple of Scottish examples, Haggis Hurling and the Glen Nevis airbed race.

We did wellie throwing at my niece’s wedding. It was fun 😊. In Conwy they used to have a plastic duck race every year, not sure if it’s still on or not. Nature is very good and usually grows dock leaves near nettles so if you’re stung again, rub a dock leaf on it.

Well Alanna, who said that the British don't know how to have fun. How about brining all these events together in one place next year and organizing the 2024 Adventures & Naps alternative Olympics, it would sell out. 😀

When I was a kid there used to be an elver eating competition. Elvers are baby eels and they would appear in the River Severn in huge numbers at a certain time of year.

Have you come across the ba’ game in Orkney? It’s played in Kirkwall, the island capital, at Christmas and New Year. It’s a mass participation ball game played by just about every man in town with a goal at either end of town- the goal scorer (and there is only one goal) gets local celebrity status until the next game. I think it’s also played in the island’s second town, Stromness, too.

Wales and New Zealand are 2 of the most similar places that couldnt be further apart, apparently having 4 seasons in one day (and all) is really good for breeding sheep.

Well that was fun - especially your reactions!. Your attempt at gutning showed real promise, Alana - a future champion perhaps! Haha 😜😉😅😅

There was a good TV show from about 10-15 years ago called "Rory & Paddy's Great British Adventure" it's where 2 Guys(Rory McGrath & Paddy McGuinness travel around the UK actually playing, and going into the history of many of these crazy things we call Games. There's 2 series of the show well worth checking them out

Did you include sitting in a bath full of baked beans. It's done for charity, and the winner is the one who can stay the longest. Its popular with fundraisers who don't like marathons.

I've done wellie-wanging and horseshoe-tossing. Never quite plucked up the courage for the cheese-rolling, though - it's terrifying enough to watch it close up! You can practise for the gurning competitions by getting some pictures of church gargoyles and a mirror.

Hi, Alanna, that was great fun. I hope you get the copyright thing sorted out, you did plenty of commentary so you should be ok. I think next year you should be entering the bed race. I hope everyone agrees. Fingers crossed you're enjoying Canada and are staying well.

my favourite is the Great British Christmas Pudding Contest at Covent Garden in December.

Nettle eating at Dorset Nectar cider, to get to it strangely you have to go up Pineapple Lane! Lived near Knaresborough and the bed race is wild! I wonder why they stopped wearing clogs for the shin kicking?

Oh the memories! I haven't done welly-wanging since I was a kid. Pro tip, don't try to discuss it when you've had a few. The words have a propensity to come out very wrong 😆. Great video, thanks for sharing! 🥰. Oh, P.s It's Gloss-tur not glauw-ster lol. Good attempt tho! 10/10 for effort 🙏🙏

I'd love to see more of this sort of video from you 😀

haha Sorry Alana but your pronouncing of Knaresborough had me in stitches. Coincidentally, I have done the bog snorkelling for a friend's stag weekend. And yes it also was raining. Go on, give it a go and we would love to watch the video of you doing the bog snorkelling.

Someone needs to make a computer game featuring all these sports 😄

Hahaha love it....Happy belated Canada 🇨🇦 day. Hope you had an awesome time with family and friends :)

The cool thing about stinging nettles is that the sting doesn't really hurt but the resulting rash is really annoying for about 24 hours.

Stinging nettles are nice cooked: fried in oil with garlic, absolutely delicious.

In before Alanna announces she’s in training for the international welly-throwing tourney! 👢👢👢👢🏆🏆🏆🏆

I love how you say "North Yorkshire" with a perfect Kent accent!

That nettle eating thing was like a scene form The Wicker Man.

I love things like this, that towns run. One I always love going to is Surbiton Ski Sunday, where instead of skiing on snow, they put some vinyl on a slope, throw fairy liquid on it, and strap blocks of ice to your feet (or thrown you down in a bathtub for the 'luge' event). Always some spectacular falls to be seen! They also have 'bread golf', where they use expired dough balls to try and get into the hole - which is a tin on a barge on the Thames - while trying to avoid the rowers!

Your taking the piss out off accents is the most British thing you can do. Brilliant, your more English than Canadian…😂

Ah got to love a good, wacky competition. Some of those do look fun & may have to try & wrangle some friends in. When I first saw the cider farm sign I was thinking drinking completion, yes please but nettles? No thank you had enough bad experiences with them. Great fun video

Fun fact about nettles: if they're cut off from their roots, they don't sting. It's something to do with water pressure in the cells of the plant. I've never had it but some people swear by nettle tea.

These are so delightful and wholesome. Excellent and thank you for covering these.

Albert Turner, the champion gurner Will enter no more shows By sheer bad luck, his jaw got stuck And bit off half his nose ©Me, August 1995

Alanna, as usual you humourously highlight one of the UK's greatest strengths - its ability to laugh at its own eccentricity! However, Canada is not lacking in strange competitions: Nanaimo Bathtub Race, the Annual Ironing Race (incl underwater ironing), the Winnipeg Beard Growing Competition, etc. BC even has its own version of England's cheese rolling race. 😂

Every Englishman over the age of 30 shouted out loud "GURNING!" as soon as we saw the still of the hands around the horse collar at 0:40

When the Hobbits go, they really go. And Gandelf hasn't even arrived yet with the fireworks.

I'm an American living in the US, and I've never heard of gurning before today. I'm quite fascinated.😂

Nettles are supposed to be one of the most nutritious/healthiest plants in the world. Also, there's a variety of nettles that don't sting, so maybe these are what's being used for the eating competition.

The Cheese rolling/ chasing is where it's at. It's peak sport for us where we don't have to worry about the injuries due to the NHS!

You missed, the most dangerous! Flaming barrel race. Flaming barrels of tar race through village streets on Bonfire Night, in Ottery st Mary, East Devon. This has been going for centuries.

Oh Alanna, I knew from the title that you were going down a dark hole there girl. The Brits love their crazy ideas, it was only a matter of time before the craziness became a sport and as with most things British, it has a long history attached to it😂😂😂

If there was a World Cup for eccentricities we would be champions we are as mad as a box of frogs 🐸

Hi Alanna Me and my friend once entered the local charity wheelbarrow race, it was run between all the local pubs where there was a set route which included about 9 pubs over a few miles. One person had to be always in the wheelbarrow while the other one pushed, on arriving at the pub, they both had to drink on half pint of their chosen drink then off to the next. it was a race and the person in the barrow could change frequently between the two team members. it also included a obstacle course where bails of straw, balance bars ext. There was an entry fee, and all the people on the route watching had the chance to donate by people collecting in buckets. The actual turnout was amazing and a lot of money was made for the charity, even if we all felt very ill by downing half pints then running to the next one pushing your buddy in a wheel barrow. keep the vids coming they are great xx

I've been a subscriber to your channel since pretty much when you started it off and moved to the UK and I must say, when you said 'look at that' in the wellie 'wanging' bit, you sounded properly English 😅 keep going, love your content still

I suppose there are loads of weird competitions like this all over the world, but I believe most places can't hold a candle to Britain 😂 I just heard about a hay bale race the other day... which is a fancy dress pub crawl with a hay bale as far as I can tell. Honestly, I'd love to see any one of these!

Hi Alanna Yep you've missed ( Coopers Hill ) annual cheese rolling contest only recently back ( H & S issues ) Numerous video clips on You Tube. Enjoy

Dwile Flonking needs a mention, a circle of inebriated players hold hands dancing round, person in the middle holds a fladger (stick) with a dwile on the end (beer soaked rag) hurtling it at dancers, a good shot is rewarded by drinking a chamber pot of beer! Rules subject to change depending on how much grog consumed!

If you crush nettles up you can eat them cos you crush the stings. plus you can make food like soup from them.

I like the new visual format with you in the circle for this kind of sharing video. Great 👍🏼

I think this was a really good idea you had, the fact it was a reaction rather than showing what is available here, very well done :)

I just witnessed a floppy disk throwing competition so you can add that to the list

What about 'The World Custard Pie Throwing Championships'. This takes place in the village of Coxheath, just south of Maidstone, Kent. I think you will have to wait for next year now; this year's event has already taken place.

I really enjoyed this new style of video! Looking forward to the next one 😊😊😊