Straw flies as shin-kicking champion crowned at ancient rural games

A new shin-kicking champion has been crowned at the Cotswold Olimpick Games, where bruises and flying straw are part of a sporting tradition dating back more than 400 years.

The event, held on Dover’s Hill near Chipping Campden on Friday, was revived in 1951 after first being held in 1612 when local lawyer Robert Dover is said to have wanted to channel some of the competitive traits of the local people.

The rural games mix individual and group disciplines, including long jump, the wooden pillar throw, tug o’ war, sack race and running events.

Former chairman Tom Threadgill said: “It got shut down for the last time in the mid-1850s because of 30,000 people coming.

“It’s been banned at a number of points across its 400 years.”

A person dressed as Robert Dover opens the games in Gloucestershire (Zoe Head-Thomas/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - Zoe Head-Thomas

Once famous for a greasy pole-climbing competition that would grant the winner a piglet, past games have included horse racing, hare coursing and shooting.

While most modern disciplines are friendly contests, the shin-kicking bouts – a staple of the games for 400 years – elicited winces and moans of sympathy from the crowd of more than 2,500 spectators on Friday.

Each participant must wear trousers, with straw available for them to create a layer of padding on their shins.

Shin-kicking referees are called sticklers (Zoe Head-Thomas/PAPA Wire/PA Images - Zoe Head-Thomas

Contestants hold each other by the shoulder and try to kick each other’s shins and force their opponent to the ground.

The stickler, or referee, has to make sure that shins are kicked before a fall can count.

Competing for the second year, Gareth Way – aka Gaz – said: “The kicking is not the biggest part.

“I think that there’s an element of the pushing, the shoving. That’s at least 50% of, it I think.

People take part in a team sack race (Zoe Head-Thomas/PAPA Wire/PA Images - Zoe Head-Thomas

“You feel that more than you feel your shins.

“Your shins hurt days after, and I’ve got almost football-style socks so they hold the padding in well.

“Because of that, the blows aren’t as bad.”

Three-times champion and newly appointed stickler Shindiana Jones, real name Mike Newby, crowned Andrew Bailey the 2026 winner after he bravely opted to compete without straw padding.

Untraditional sporting disciplines are what make the Cotswold Olimpick Games unique without falling into a gimmick, as Mr Threadgill argued, despite what the name might suggest.

The wooden pillar throw is another of the ancient events (Zoe Head-Thomas/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - Zoe Head-Thomas

He said: “When they set it up in 1612, people were kind of looking back to the classical age so the whole using of the Olympic name was very much ‘we know what we’re talking about’.”

In 2012, the event was contacted by the Olympic Committee – coincidentally on its 400th anniversary – to feature in a London 2012 Olympics promotional video, reviving its popularity and attracting crowds from further afield.

Attendees this year travelled from as far as North Carolina in the United States.

The games concluded with a fireworks display and beacon lighting before crowds descended on Chipping Campden, torches in hand.