This wheel's on fire...

May 29, 2018 1:01 PM

A man has become the most successful cheese-chaser ever. Chris Anderson broke the previous record of 20 wins with his latest feat du fromage in the 2018 Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling competition. Participant POV video footage of the race is available, along with Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling 2018 - All Main Races, and a video compilation entitled Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling - Worst Falls 2018 [contains footage of some people getting a bit banged up]. The premature news of the Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling competition's death previously on Metafilter, and the demise of the Stilton Cheese-Rolling competition, previously.
posted by mandolin conspiracy (22 comments total)

THE OLD WAYS.
posted by Artw at 1:10 PM on May 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

Just spotted on in the story recommendations on the BBC's coverage page:

"You may also Brie interested in:"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:13 PM on May 29, 2018 [5 favorites]

"Nathan Anstey, from Australia, said the crowd "absolutely loved" his risqué "budgie smuggler" swimming trunks."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:14 PM on May 29, 2018

Jared Diamond has some opinions about how it came to be that natural selection was first described by an Englishman.
posted by klanawa at 1:44 PM on May 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I lived a couple miles from here. I've never been to the event itself but I have been at Cooper's hill several times. I do recommend going by because none of the videos give a good sense of just how STEEP that hill is! It is almost a sheer drop and I don't feel confident WALKING down it without risking breaking a leg. So, this makes this event all the more incredible and the participants are truly insane courageous!
posted by vacapinta at 1:54 PM on May 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

SO cool! I didn't know they had continued after 2011!
posted by zarq at 2:01 PM on May 29, 2018

I would only do this if it was soft unpasteurized stinky cheese being rolled down the hill. So it would be an awful mess twice over.
posted by srboisvert at 3:07 PM on May 29, 2018

Oh my god, that guy with the orange backpack at about 1:10 in the worst falls 2018 video... He just kind of hilariously blows apart and loses his shoes and backpack and everything and you can watch every moment of nuanced regret with each ass over tea kettle.
posted by loquacious at 3:08 PM on May 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Wait, I guess he doesn't lose his shoes.
posted by loquacious at 3:10 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

He just kind of hilariously blows apart and loses his shoes and backpack and everything and you can watch every moment of nuanced regret with each ass over tea kettle.

It was akin to watching one of those end-over-end F1 crashes where the car flies apart with each rotation.

But funnier.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:21 PM on May 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

m.c., you're doing Wordshore's work here, and we thank you for it.
posted by mwhybark at 3:52 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Previously-overlooked Ryan Reynolds Deadpool 2 publicity stunt at 01:24 of "Worst Falls," next to the guy in a Pittsbugh Stillers tee.
posted by mwhybark at 3:57 PM on May 29, 2018

There seems to be a strategy with some of the rollers.
posted by rhizome at 7:01 PM on May 29, 2018

Is there actually a cheese? I never saw a cheese in those vids.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 8:29 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Goddamn nanny state ruins everything
posted by flabdablet at 8:32 PM on May 29, 2018

Is there actually a cheese? I never saw a cheese in those vids.

Theres no cheese in the first-person POV vid because its an unofficial race after the main event according to the comments, but there are several cheeses on display in the Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling 2018 - All Main Races link. The cheese rolls on the count of three, the chasers follow on four.
posted by rodlymight at 9:03 PM on May 29, 2018

I went this year for the first time and a fellow spectator told me they used foam cheeses one year but they were rubbish. I can also report that the cheese is potentially lethal -- having witnessed the force at which it crashed against the security fence which I was stood behind.

Yes, the hill is steep. It would be more accurately described as a grassy wall.
posted by popcassady at 4:25 AM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

This image in the BBC coverage has a perspective that gives a sense of the steepness.

Yowza.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:22 AM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm guessing there are no rocks in the dirt?
posted by rhizome at 10:28 AM on May 30, 2018

This image in the BBC coverage has a perspective that gives a sense of the steepness.

Yes. There's no foreshortening of perspective there. That's exactly how it looks.
posted by popcassady at 11:27 AM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Aaaas Youuuuuuu Whiiiizzzzzzzzzzzz.
posted by TreeRooster at 12:51 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Wow. I thought some of those moves were only possible in QWOP.
posted by cheshyre at 6:37 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]