Slippers, Catchers and Buttocks – Why Grasmere Sports Can’t be Beaten as a Sporting Spectacle

With ‘catchers’, ‘trailers’ and ‘slippers’ all in action, those heading to Grasmere Sports and Lakeland Show on Sunday, August 28, might be forgiven for thinking they have stumbled across a game of Quidditch.  Instead, they will be entering a world equally as magical to those who have never encountered it – that of traditional Lakeland sports.

In many senses, Cumbria is another country and they “do things differently there”.  That is certainly true when it comes to sports, which were shaped and developed to suit the terrain and traditional ways of life and which have been retained by tight-knit communities and farming folk determined to keep hold of their unique identity and pastimes.  Sports and the fells terrain enjoy a symbiotic relationship.  

Covid may have caused the abandonment of Grasmere Sports for only the second and third time in its history (the first being during World War II), but the traditions will be lived and breathed again in 2022, keeping alive an event that first ran in 1868.

The catchers, trailers and slippers will all be called into action in the traditional Hounds Trails races, of which there are four at Grasmere Sports and Lakeland Show – the Puppy Trail, the Open Restricted Trail, the Veteran Trail and the prestige race, the Senior Hound Trail.

Hound trailing has 18th century roots in the area and started as a means to settle debates and disputes between local farmers as to who owned the fastest hounds.  To determine this, they started ‘drag hunting’, racing their hounds over designated trails to find the fastest pack.  This has developed into Hound Trailing and the Hound Trailing Association was formed in 1906.

At Grasmere Sports and Lakeland Show on August 28, the trails will have been laid by the expert trailers.  Two trailers take to the huge fell overlooking the showground and head to a halfway point.  One walks to the start line, leaving a trail of aniseed for the hounds (descendants of fox hounds) to follow.  The other trailer walks the other way and lays the trail to the finish line.  

Each race commences when the dogs are ‘slipped’ and let off their leads, to tear up the fells, using all their strength, stamina and powers of scent detection.  These carefully trained dogs will show dedication to sniffing out the aniseed trail and following it all the way back to their owners, who create a huge hullabaloo as they encourage their dogs to be fastest home, shouting, blowing horns and banging food bowls.

The dogs race back to the finish, where ‘catchers’ need to identify the fastest entrants and award the prizes to the dogs they have marked as the winners.

This majestic spectacle takes place over the course of 18-22 minutes for the Puppy, Open Restricted and Veteran events, where the trail is five miles long.  Spectators, with binoculars carefully trained on the fellside, can follow the hounds in the Senior Hound Trail race for around 32-34 minutes, over a ten-mile course. Those winning the four races this year, will follow in the pawprints of Manna, Tommy’s Legacy and Bedazzled, winners in 2019, the last time the race was run.

But if the terminology in the Hounds races is unfamiliar to those venturing far further north than Watford Gap, what of the Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling event, where it includes ‘Buttocks’ (twisting throws), ‘Hipes’ (lifting throws)  and ‘Chips’ (manoeuvres to throw the opponent)?

This sport, rooted in Lake District heritage, is one that many spectators should instantly take a shine to, if they have grown to love formats of wrestling appearing in Olympic and Commonwealth Games, or rather quite like the antics of megastars like The Rock.

This ancient form of local wrestling is not a male-only domain and equally embraced by women and children. This girl can – and does, with women increasingly demonstrating it’s not all about the men in their unique and rather quaint traditional costumes.  It continues to thrill all generations and there will be more categories open to contestants in Grasmere than ever before, even if the highly decorated ceremonial wrestling gear of white singlet, white leggings and heavily embroidered pants is typically only seen in the costume competition, rather than the wrestling arena.

Then, there are the fell races, known as the Guide Races in Grasmere but confuse thee not.  This is not a case of blue-uniformed girls running across a track but elite Cumbrian athletes demonstrating true athleticism and levels of fitness that are quite staggering to behold.  Up and down the fell dedicated runners have raced since 1868, tackling bracken, uneven footpaths, steep inclines, dizzy heights and vertigo-inducing views of the showground way beneath the fell known as Silver How.  This is endurance sport at its toughest and makes the Great North Run look like a piece of cake.

Again, there are races for men, women and children, all hoping to have the bragging rights in the local community for a whole year, having won one of the toughest ‘asks’ of them all in the world of outdoor athletics.

Whether any of the men in the elite race will be a record-breaker remains to be seen, however.  The 44-year-old record, set in 1978 over the ‘Butter Crags Course’, entailing an ascent of 295 metres, stands at 12 minutes and 21.6 seconds and is held by Fred Reeves, an 8-times winner in Grasmere.  That extraordinary time has not be matched by a long way thus far.  In Cumbrian terms, it would be pretty barrie (good) or maybe even a little bit spawney (lucky) if it could be beaten in what is a renaissance year for Grasmere Sports and Lakeland Show but just another demonstration of how you can take Lakeland sports out of the calendar but you can’t take the love and passion for Lakeland sports out of the folk.

The very fact that visitors (offcomers) can not only view all of this but become a part of it is truly intoxicating for any true sports lover and appreciator of grassroots sport at its most traditional level.  It catapults you into the past; invigorates your present with something wholesome and enriching.  The best news is that all you have to do to experience this is to arrive at the Grasmere Sports and Lakeland Show showground on August 28 and be prepared to breathe it all in.  You’ll soon find a few 'marras' (friends), who will explain all the rules.

Ends

Editors notes

Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show is an iconic event taking place in the heart of the English Lake District on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Its long historic roots date back to 1868 and it is renowned for its fell running, hound trails and Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling competitions, as well as being a fantastic family day out.