Biscuit Rolling from Barnsley

This excerpt is from the book 40 Humourous British Traditions

In the UK there are many contests involving the humble biscuit, ranging from building competitions to throwing events. However, in Barnsley the biscuits are just rolled for fun, so that in the words of the original organizer Rufus Moxon, “the biscuit is conserved in its entirety and can still be consumed – what’s the point of breaking a perfectly good biscuit just for fun – what a waste of money that would be.”

The contest was started in 1934 and has been going strong since then, even during the time of Margaret Thatcher. The contest takes place on the day of the first full moon after the sixth Sunday after Len Hutton’s birthday on June 23^rd.

There are many different skills contests. The oldest is the rolling the biscuit through the cricket stumps competition, which takes place at the cricket club. Competitors stand in one popping crease and have to roll their biscuit down the pitch and make sure it passes between the stumps at the other end – each person has three biscuits and whoever succeeds in bisecting the stumps is through to the next round. Wilfrid Hirst has won this contest five times – his advice is as follows: “it’s just like bowls – same delivery, same pace, except it’s a biscuit you’re bowling so you have to have more of a follow through – and don’t bounce the thing as it will disintegrate on the pitch.” Contestants aren’t allowed to replace broken biscuits, which means that people who employ a “bouncing bomb” technique have never won the contest.