Cheese chase winner Crowther on a roll

DOZENS of fearless competitors took part yesterday in one of England’s most bizarre and dangerous sporting challenges — chasing a giant cheese down a steep slope.

They flipped, somersaulted and tumbled their way 200 metres down the face of Cooper’s Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, in pursuit of the giant runaway circle of cheese.

Despite heavy rain, about 3,000 people gathered on the hillside, which in places has a 1:1 gradient, to watch the five bone-crunching downhill races.