With many unable to make Olympic Games in Tokyo, Cranbrook Rugby Club presents the Weald Rural Games
06:00, 26 June 2021
One town is to get its very own, totally wacky, version of the Olympics.
With Covid dashing many sports fans' hopes of getting to the Games in Tokyo next month, Cranbrook Rugby Club, in the Weald, is putting on its own version, of the contest.
Forget the 100m sprint, long jump and javelin, participants at the Weald Rural Games will be competing in tug-o-war, egg and spoon races, welly wanging, egg roulette and bottle walking.
The charity event, at the Tomlin Ground, off Angley Road in Cranbrook on Saturday, August 14 will even finish with a tomato fight to rival the likes of La Tomatina in Spain.
Rugby club co-ordinater Chris Hambridge, from Kilndown, has been planning the eccentric extravaganza since January having been researching traditional fete games from across the world.
The 55-year-old said: "Whilst supporters can't make it to the Olympics, we have our very own that all the family can take part in.
"This is all about having a laugh. You have the egg and spoon race at school, now it's the kids' time to challenge granny, challenge mum, challenge your brother or sister."
This isn't the first bonkers event to come to the area.
Coxheath has hosted the annual world custard pie championships since 1967, with teams from as far afield as Japan turning up to fling flans at one another.
That event is scheduled to go ahead on September 4.
As well as the more traditional games at the Weald Rural Games, spectators can watch egg roulette, where competitors smash eggs against their heads, hoping they get a hard boiled rather than a raw one and bottle walking - where you hop across a line of skittles.
There will also be a rugby match, bowling for a 'pig', a golfing challenge, and a bar.
Admission is £1 and the money raised will be split between the rugby club, Hospice in the Weald and the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance.
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