Cheese Rolling Winner Announced

The 2008 Cooper's Hill Gloucester Cheese-Rolling Champion Chris Anderson, age20, of Brockworth, pictured here in 2007, when he was also the winner.

A few weeks back we wrote a post on the Cheese Rolling Championship held every year in the U.K. Every year the event gets bigger and is now covered internationally so, of course, The Boston Foodie cannot miss the coverage, as promised.

For the past 20 years, Diana Smart of Churcham has made the Double Gloucester cheese used in the event from the milk of her herd of Brown Swiss, Holstein and Gloucester cows. From the official Cheese-Rolling Website, "she is the only person in Gloucestershire now making Double Gloucester cheeses by hand, using traditional methods." Single and Double Gloucester are fairly mild, semi-firm cheeses, similar to Cheddar. Single Gloucester is made from skimmed milk, whereas Double Gloucester is made from whole milk and additional cream.

This year's cheese-rolling winner, 20-year-old Christopher Anderson (not 19 as reported elsewhere), was carried off in a neck brace and given oxygen after the event, injured from the treacherous tumbling. Apparently the weather did not cooperate with lots of heavy rain, turning the hill into a steep oil slick, and leading to 19 injuries among dozens of entrants. Thankfully, Mr. Anderson was not seriously injured. He shook off the cuts and bruises and returned to Cooper's Hill to cheer on the other contestants in later races. The second place went to Shane Beard, age 19, who is a friend of Mr. Anderson.


Shane Beard, second place winner


No wonder they had the ambulances waiting! Here is a link to an incredible BBC video showing just how dangerous this can be:
Cheese Rolling Video

Congratulations to all the participants and the winners!!!