From rsholmes@MAILBOX.SYR.EDU Wed Jun  7 12:12:04 1995
To: MORRIS%INDYCMS.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu
Date:    Wed, 31 May 1995 22:32:46 -0400
From:    Rich Holmes <rsholmes&#64;MAILBOX.SYR.EDU>
Subject: Fertility? Riiiight.

Reprinted without permission from an Associated Press report.  The
last paragraph may be of particular interest:

    BRITISH CHEESE-ROLLING TRADITION TURNS HAZARDOUS

    CHELTENHAM, England -- If you think hang-gliding, sky-diving and
    big-game hunting are dangerous sports, apparently you've never
    heard of cheese-rolling.

    In the annual cheese-rolling contest here on Monday, 18 of the
    approximately 20 contestants were injured -- four of them
    seriously enough to be sent to the hospital.

    The annual competition, in which contenders vie for a giant round
    cheese by rolling smaller versions down Cooper's Hill, left four
    contestants with broken arms and legs and 14 others were treated
    on the spot for sprains.

    Among those who ended the day unscathed was Darren Yates, 15, who
    won the big cheese.

    Cheese rolling on Cooper's Hill is thought to date back to
    pre-Roman times, when it was a fertility rite heralding the
    return of spring.

18 injuries out of 20 participants?  This gives me an idea for a
new recruiting flyer: "MORRIS DANCING -- LESS HAZARDOUS THAN
CHEESE-ROLLING!"

--
- Rich Holmes

                Of course it's daft, it's traditional.
                                            - Terry Pratchett