You might not know it, but many sports and games that are played all over the world were invented by the British. Football, tennis, cricket¹, snooker, rugby, and golf all originated² in the British Isles³.

However, if you thought that here in the UK we are only interested inmainstream sportsthen think again. That’s because Britain has become abreeding groundfor increasinglybizarresports. This week’s Take Away English looks at some of the strangest sports and competitions to be found in the UK (all of them are 100% true).

Every year theWelshVillage of Llanwrtyd Wells hosts the WorldBog-SnorkellingChampionships. In this event competitors are required to put on aface mask,wetsuitandsnorkelthen swim face down in a water-filledditch.

If you think that sounds painful, then you probably won’t want to take part in the WorldNettleEating Championships. This competition takes place in the village of Marshwood in the south-west of England. The rules are simple: each competitor has one hour to eat as manystingingnettles as they can. You’ll have to work hard to win it – last year’s winnermunchedhis way through 14.6 meters of nettles⁴!

You don’t always have to have physical strength to be a winner in Britishsillysports. A Nottingham pub⁵ plays host to the annual competition to be ‘The World’s GreatestLiar’. This competition invites competitors to tell the most unbelievable story they canmake up. Last year’s winner won the prize after entertaining the crowd with awhopperabout his parents who just happen to bevampires!

In recent years we have seen the rise of what must be the silliest sport of them all –extreme ironing. Invented in Leicester in 1997, extreme ironing has become aglobal phenomenon. Extreme ironers attempt to do their ironing in the strangest and most dangerous places – under the sea, on top of mountains, even at the end of a parachute falling to earth.

Britain is proud to still be a world-beater in this event. This year a team of British extreme ironers broke the world record when theydivedto a depth of 126 meters to do their ironing.