British Travel Journal | Autumn 2019

Brompton World Championships
1
O N Y O U R B I K E
With a strict heritage dress code, and
qualifying heats held in cities around the
world, the final takes place around St James Park,
London every summer – around 600 competitors
with prizes for the fastest and best dressed.
brompton.com/events
L A W N M O W E R L E G E N D S
12-Hour Lawnmower Race
2
For a grassroots British Grand Prix a world away from the pomp and silly money of
Formula One, head to the 12-Hour Lawnmower Race at Five Oaks, near Billingshurst,
West Sussex, in early August. This is cutting edge motor sports at its finest, with a Le Mansstyle
grid start at 8pm, followed by 12 hours of racing through the night. The drivers, with no
form of suspension other than a padded seat, take it very seriously. In fact, the first race in
1978 was won by no less than racing legend Stirling Moss. blmra.co.uk
T H E B E S T L I N K S C O U R S E I N S C O T L A N D
World Hickory Golf Championships
3
Brassies, mashies and putters meet classy plus fours at Kingarrock in Scotland, the UK’s
only remaining Hickory Golf Course, formed in 1924. Get back to stylish basics and nearly a
century in time when golf relied on technique rather than technology.
worldhickoryopen.com
E G G S A N D N E T T L E S
Egg Throwing World Championships
4
This eggcellent annual event respects a
centuries-old tradition of egg throwing in
the Lincolnshire village of Swaton. Watch teams
try to launch eggs the furthest without breaking
them, and contestants risk egg on their faces with
Russian Egg Roulette. Each entrant has to smash
an egg against their forehead…. out of six eggs
available, five are hard-boiled but one is raw!
World Nettle Eating Championship
5
This annual competition, held at the Bottle
Inn, a 16th-century pub in the Dorset village of
Marshwood, sees scores of contestants line up to
eat as many two-foot long stalks of nettles as they
can in an hour. A recent champion, aptly called
Thorne, devoured 86 feet of stinging nettles. à
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