h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The British have a few strange comps too. One I saw on TV here was the cheese rolling. A round cheese is rolled down a hill with about a 45 degree slope, then people throw themselves after it in an attempt to be the first to catch it. People break arms etc.

What about the Italian running of the bulls or their annual tomato throw. The difference there is that they throw the tomatos at each other.

There is also the Dutch canal pole vault contest.

The oddest one of all has to be bog snorkelling....people swim through deep peaty bog in a mask and snorkel. Very odd.

It's the Spanish that run the bulls in Pamplona, but agree it's quite mad. Nice to see that the bulls get even sometimes.

As well as cheese rolling, in the UK there is an annual football game between the 2 halves of a town (the uppers and lowers?)with limitless players and no real rules apart from getting to the other end. I think it's played around easter time. The ball gets dragged through rivers, peoples houses, streets etc.