True Brits Extras

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Shin Kicking (Part 38): Robinson Crusoe's Shin-Kicking Connection

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Dover returned to England a very rich man, and Selkirk also did well for himself. According to one story, Dover took Selkirk to a tavern ...

Cheese Rolling (Part 11): The Femur Had Snapped in Half

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Ironically, the pain didn't kick in until the ambulance ride. Every jolt and judder down the bumpy hill made the boys moan. At the hos...

Cheese Rolling (Part 10): Sound as a Pound?

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At least a dozen paramedics pounced on him. Despite his injuries and the blood streaking down his face, Gareth wasn't in agony; he was...

Cheese Rolling (Part 9): It Was Just As If His Leg Wasn't There

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There wasn't any danger of lightning this time round, though. A drought had baked the slope rock hard beneath the deceptively green ca...

Cheese Rolling (Part 8): Jinxed from Cheese Rolling

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As crippling mishaps go, it would be hard to top Gareth Smedley's. When he was seven, his family went to watch the race on a hot Bank ...

Shin Kicking (Part 37): A Brilliant Tale

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Dover's critics pointed out that the human body doesn't actually absorb liquid metal when it is swallowed. One told of a patient ...

Shin Kicking (Part 36): The Agony of the Feet... and a Literary Detour

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Before recounting my own sorry shin kicking experience, I can't resist a detour into Campden's little-known literary connections. ...

Shin Kicking (Part 21): We Were Some Ignorant Little B's

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"They took it serious, y'see. Tough as hell—all of 'em were, in those days," an Old Campdonian tells me. Shin kicking h...

Shin Kicking (Part 20): "Satan's Abominations"

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Back in the Cotswolds, shin kicking—and backswording—continued long after Dover's Games came to an end. One famous venue was Cooper...