The Funny Things Humans Get Up To

The Easter Holidays are approaching and whilst we have been doing more research for our Expedition we came across these events.

We laughed at some of them!

If you are wanting to go somewhere, check out this site! Lots to do!

Back Soon
Love Edmund and Percival.

MARCH

WORLD MARBLES CHAMPIONSHIPS

When: 21 March 2008 (Good Friday)
Where: Greyhound Pub, Tinsley Green, Crawley, West Sussex
PR Contact: Crawley Visitor Information Centre, tel: +44 (0) 1293 846 968 or Sam or Julia
McCarthy-Fox, tel: +44 (0) 1403 730 602
Email: marblesam@hotmail.com
Web: www.marblemuseum.org
Marbles have been played in and around Tinsley Green for many hundreds of years. The tradition is said to date back to the time of Good Queen Bess when two men from Surrey and Sussex competed for the hand of a maiden from Tinsley, which is just on the border of the two counties. After being judged equal in all the major sports of the time such as archery and wrestling, one of them came up with the game of marbles and the tradition has continued ever since. The World Marble Championships date back to the 1930s. Some 20 teams from around the
world take part including Canada, the USA and Germany and the action is watched by hundreds of spectators. The game is played in a six foot diameter ring which is dusted with fine sand and set up in the Greyhound Pub car park. Some 49 marbles are then placed in the ring. There are six players in a team and each member has four marbles. The winner is the first team to knock 25 marbles out of the ring.


BOTTLE KICKING AND HARE PIE SCRAMBLE
When: 24 March 2008 (Easter Monday)
Where: Hallaton, Leicestershire
PR Contact: Festival Chairman, Phil Allen, tel: +44 (0) 1858 555 310 or Simon Gribbon, Leicestershire Promotions tel: +44 (0) 116 225 4000
Email: simon.gribbon@l-p-l.com
In 1770, the Rector of Hallaton was allotted a piece of land on condition that he provided two hare pies, two dozen loaves of bread and a quantity of ale, which had to be scrambled for in public. The custom still survives today. On Easter Monday, a hare pie is baked using a 20 inch square tin and is paraded in a procession through Hallaton village from the Fox Inn to St Michael’s Church. Slices are cut up, blessed and distributed at St Michael’s Church gates by the rector. Immediately behind the pie in the procession are the bottles that are used for the Bottle Kicking match. The ‘bottles’ are actually three small wooden kegs. Two contain beer and the remaining one is coloured red and white. The Bottle Kicking Parade moves through the village to the top of Hare Pie bank where the Bottle Kicking match takes place. The competitors are teams from Hallaton and nearby Medbourne who kick and man-handle the three barrels in an attempt to get them across respective boundaries. The goals are two streams a mile (1.6km) apart, and the aim is to kick two of the three bottles across the team’s respective stream. It is a tough contest with the teams having to get the barrels across numerous hedges, lanes, ditches and even barbed wire to reach their touchlines.


Our Favourite...

WORLD POOH STICKS CHAMPIONSHIPS

When: 30 March 2008, 12 noon
Where: Days Lock Island, near the Whittenham Clumps, River Thames, Oxfordshire
PR Contact: David Caswell, Organiser, Rotary Club of Sinodun, Wallingford
Tel: +44 (0) 1491 838 294
Email: david@dcaswell.F9.co.uk
Web: www.pooh-sticks.com
When Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin first dropped a handful of sticks from a bridge into a stream and rushed to the other side to see which came under first, who would have imagined this would start an annual tradition? The 17th Annual World Pooh Sticks Championships is set to attract around 1000 people, many in fancy dress. Competing families and bears take part in a knock-out style competition, with teams of six dropping different coloured sticks from each of the two bridges at the lock. The event is held in aid of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.