Homes & Gardens
Quirky Britain Bog Snorkelling
Not your bog-standard kind of sport… Fancy navigating your way along a cold, muddy bog, wearing a snorkel and flippers? If your answer is an emphatic “No!” you may be surprised to hear that there are hundreds of people – not just in Britain, but across the globe – who would be happy to take your place. Bog snorkelling is a slippery, slimy sport popular in the UK, Australia, Ireland and Sweden, which has featured in travel publication Lonely Planet’s list of the world’s top fifty ‘must do’ activities. Competitors are required to travel two consecutive lengths along a 60 yard (55 metre) trench cut into a peat bog, completing the journey in the shortest possible time. Conventional swimming strokes are not allowed and competitors must rely on flipper power to propel themselves forward. Dressing for the bog Donning goggles, a snorkel and flippers is compulsory, but there are no rules when it comes to the clothes competitors wear. This has resulted in some wonderfully eclectic costumes, with snorkellers appearing as sharks and other sea creatures as well as fairies, superheroes and spacemen. Comic wigs and hats abound – in fact there’s a prize for the ‘Best Dressed Helmet’ for people taking part in the Triathlon, which combines bog snorkelling with bike riding and running. A proud history The World Bog Snorkelling Championships are held each August in Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales. This sleepy Welsh town lays claim to the title ‘The home of bog snorkelling’, as the sport was invented there in 1976, following a pub conversation between a few locals intent on finding a new tourist attraction. Although it is a relatively new ‘sport’, bog snorkelling has all the good humour and anarchic energy of other quintessentially British events such as pancake racing, tar barrel racing and cheese rolling, and just like those activities it requires a certain amount of skill and effort to compete successfully. However, bog snorkelling is open to everyone, young and old, with contestants as young as eight taking part.
We are the champions The current champion of the over-fifties section is 51-year-old Somerset postman and hockey coach Ian Maclachlan, who first won in his debut year in 2017 and has held onto the title ever since. The current men’s World Champion is Neil Rutter, who is also unbeaten since 2017. He broke the World Record in 2018 with a time of 1 min 18.81 seconds. The women’s World Champion in 2019 was Betsy Creak with a time of 1 minute 42.22 seconds, and the women’s World Record is held by Kirsty Johnson who managed a time of 1 minute 22.56 seconds in 2014. After a couple of years off, the World Championships are set to return in 2022. Bog snorkelling may not be up there with the classic Olympic sports, but it more than makes up for that in terms of the enjoyment it generates, not to mention the good causes it helps through fundraising. And that’s not all … Llanwrtyd Wells’ ambition to become a national hub for quirky sporting events took another step forward in 2012, with the creation of the World Alternative Games. Although the Games were inspired by the London 2012 Olympics and claim to uphold the ‘Corinthian spirit’ in all their events, the activities on offer at Llanwrtyd Wells are about as far removed from the Olympic programme as it’s possible to get. As well as bog snorkelling, medals are awarded for bathtubbing, belly-flopping, worm charming, wife carrying and husband dragging. You can find out more about bog snorkelling and related events at worldalternativegames.co.uk. By Kate McLelland
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