We left London for the 3 hour drive to Exeter after work one Tuesday afternoon to witness this event and we returned to be in bed by 1am! That was pretty extreme in itself on reflection at breakfast the next morning! But the BBC once described this as the fourth most extreme sport in the World (after three of America's craziest creations and just before Finland's "World Wife Carrying Championships"!). The annual event dates back several hundred years when spectators were often seriously injured by the teams from the village's pubs racing their tar-lined barrels through the village square on their shoulders with aggressive flames roaring out of the open end. Not a lot has changed, as we discovered when we were sent hurtling to the floor numerous times.

Anyone would think I was some sort of marbles aficionado! Fresh from Battle Marbles, I hot footed it to the site of the "Marble Massacre" in 1932, when the Black Horse at Hookwood first captured the award. Since then the competition has always been staged on Good Friday at the Greyhound pub in Tinsley Green. Over 50 teams attend and the event even attracts sponsorship from "Bombardier Beer" and television coverage from Sky.

Just how I got to Hebden Bridge is a long story, but on my arrival a lovely lady at the Hebden Bridge Tourist Office informed me that the race had yet to start and that if I was quick, Tonsley Events might even be able to enter as the ducks had yet to be released and a competitor could still be purchased. Having run to the start, I bought a plastic duck, gave it the same advice that my father had given me just before I swam the 100 metre crawl at school for the first time (namely to kick like hell!) and without further ado threw it in the refuse bin marked "Competitors". What a way to prepare for the big race, poor thing!

Bizarre! The sport was invented by the drinking regulars at the Ye Olde Royal Oak in 1974, in response to another poor British sporting summer. With the game originally only being played by the inhabitants of Wetton, regulars were particularly pleased with themselves as at last here was a game that the British were likely to dominate.

All this was to change however in 1977, when a one regular invited a visiting Canadian friend to enter. True to form, the Canadian promptly won, disappeared off home with the trophy and the pub decided to stop playing! Fortunately when the pub changed hands in 1990, the new landlord decided to resurrect the game and now it is open to competitors throughout the world.

In 1997, the sport first applied for Olympic recognition (which was declined), while soon after the Japanese were granted a licence to stage the first non UK national games.