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.

Jason Crowther from Pembrokeshire, west Wales, won the first race to complete a hat-trick of victories over the past three years.

Clutching the 7-8lb Double Gloucester, the bruised and battered 25-year-old said: “There’s no training you can do for this. You have just got to go for it. It was a bit slippery and I heard something crack, which I think was my knee.

‘‘But there aren’t any tactics involved as you can probably see.”

Aaron Walden, 20, from Gloucester, also won for the third time — beating a man dressed in a nappy and another wearing a shirt and tie to the bottom of the hill.

Competitors and media from around the world flocked to the event which has come to celebrate English eccentricity.

Jemima Bullock, 33, from Wellington, New Zealand, was the winner of the fiercely competitive ladies’ race.

Alan Morris from Cheltenham won the fourth contest, while Chris Anderson, 19, from Brockworth, claimed victory in the final contest.

“I don’t even like cheese much,” the teenager said with a smile after the race.