Posted on 05/25/2003 10:20:42 PM PDT by yonif
LONDON (Reuters) - This year, ankles will go unbroken and heads will go ungashed, because the perilous cheeses of Gloucestershire will, alas, go unrolled.
For centuries, residents of Gloucestershire have practised the timeless and surprisingly dangerous springtime ritual of chasing large, speeding, round cheeses down steep hills. The winner gets to keep the cheese.
But this year's event, scheduled for Monday, was cancelled because emergency crews who volunteered to help clear the tumbling casualties from the hillside were summoned to Algeria to rescue earthquake (news - web sites) victims, organisers said on Saturday.
"We are very disappointed its not going to be on, but obviously without having the first aid and rescue cover we just can't put the event on. We've had to cancel it," Richard Jefferies, a member of the organising committee, told Reuters on Saturday.
A spokeswoman for emergency search and rescue charity RAPID UK confirmed that the charity had pledged a crew, but pulled out at the last minute to send it to Algeria, where Wednesday's earthquake has left more than 1,750 dead.
"Apparently, it's not just running down a hill, it's almost like jumping off a cliff. People are often breaking arms and legs," she said of the cheese rolling event. "The RAPID side was hoisting the bodies up the cliff with their broken limbs."
Organisers say the annual cheese rolling contest dates back centuries, perhaps even to the Middle Ages. During World War Two, when cheese was rationed, a wooden model cheese was used with a symbolic mini-cheese attached.
Last year, according to the organisers' Web site, "there were only three casualties requiring hospital attention", including a spectator who fainted.
"It's not very dangerous. People do get injured but usually minor abrasions, the odd broken arm or leg or something... nothing serious," said Jefferies. "I'm on the committee which organises it but I've never done it. I've got more sense."
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