Rather than eating gravy with their roast dinners, men and women at a pub in England wrestled in the sauce over the bank holiday weekend.
Now in it’s 12th year dozens of contestants took part in the World Gravy Wrestling Championships at The Rose ‘n’ Bowl pub in Lancashire on Monday (August 29).
Speaking ahead of the messy event, in which participants throw each other around for two minutes at a time, previous winner Joel Hicks said what it takes to be a champion is ”an ability not to worry about what you actually look like when you’re doing it.”
”You get messy, you get covered in it, it stinks, it gets in your eyes, you just grab onto your opponent and just hope for the best,” he said.
As well as wrestling ability the judges award points for fancy dress, comedy effects and entertainment.
Ahead of winning the women’s title, Imogen Young said the most important attribute needed to win is ”confidence.”
”Confidence, that’s what it takes, it doesn’t matter how strong you are…it’s purely confidence,” she said before competing.
Hundreds of spectators gathered to watch the wrestlers going for it in a pool of cold vegan gravy.
The silly event, which started in a pub car park, was originally a one-off to raise awareness of a food festival that was taking place locally. Over a decade later the Championships has its own entry in the Guinness book of records.
Lloyd Clarkson, who dressed as fictional character Ali G for the event, won the men’s title and said afterwards that he felt ”awesome.”
Around 2500 litres of gravy is made for the championship, which raises money for East Lancashire Hospice.
(Reuters)
