Ancient village sport is bit of a turnip this year (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Ancient village sport is bit of a turnip this year

2:56pm Thursday 6th April 2006

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A REVIVAL of the medieval sport of mangold hurling in Sherston is under threat because nobody can find any of the root vegetables.

Members of the ancient order of Sherston Mangold Hurlers opened their doors to the public on Saturday, but were forced to improvise because of the problem.

About 30 people attended the event at the Rattlebone Inn, including a group of tourists from New Zealand, but they were forced to use swedes rather than the traditional mangold, as there is a severe shortage.

The race is now on to grow or find as many of the vegetables as possible before October's annual championships.

Sherston company Tracklements has also agreed to make a mangold-wurzel chutney for the event, but needs to be supplied with the vegetable in order to do so. Primary school children have been given packets of seeds and members of the Mangold Hurling Association are hoping a local farmer will help them grow the crop.

The pastime, which is believed to have originated in Somerset, is shrouded in bizarre, humorous rules.

Put simply, it involves throwing the vegetable as close as possible to a target in a specially marked out area in a field.

The order recently announced that women and children would be allowed to enter for the first time, in a bid to expand membership.

Previously, women's involvement had extended only to being Mangold Maids, from which the gentleman winner, or Mangold King, would select his Queen. Organiser Martin Rea said it had become time for them to open their doors to a wider set of participants.

"It's been rather a clandestine organisation for some time, but we have had to come out because we are running out of members," he said.

"We had about 30 people turn up. We even had some from New Zealand, who were tourists passing through.

"We had to use swedes which are much smaller as there are no mangolds about at the moment.

"The pub provided a mangold and coriander curry, although they had to use swedes as well."

Despite the shortage, visitors were enthralled by the game and many signed up for the October event.

Mr Rea did add that some people thought the event was some form of April Fool joke, although they were quickly assured this was not the case.

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