Evening Light

More dramatic

The first correct answer to the question posed by yesterday's Guess The Sport was from Zerohour. To my surprise this was deduced by some fine analytical reasoning rather than from experience, so I'm doubly impressed. Well done. You have your name in 'gold' as a reward!

The sport being captured was the "Egg Toss", a feature event of many traditional gala sports up here in the north of England. It's brilliant fun both to compete in and to watch, and involves a considerable element of skill. It's also wonderfully simple and requires no more than a few dozen eggs (free range, of course) and a couple of pieces of string. I've had a mind for a while to campaign for its inclusion in the Olympics. I fear I might be a bit late for London 2012!

The game is played in pairs, with each pair lined up opposite each other behind a line. You toss the egg to your partner and hopefully they catch it intact. If the egg is dropped or it breaks, you are eliminated. With each round of tosses the distance between you and your partner is increased, until there are just two pairs left and you get into the final, where you get to compete against those pairs that have survived the other heats. The winner is the last pair left standing. You'd be amazed at how far you have to toss the egg to secure victory.

My action shots yesterday were rather poor because of the bad light and drizzle, but this fun picture will give you some idea. The chap on the left is demonstrating how the egg should be caught, reducing the speed of impact by bringing back the hands behind you in a sweeping motion. The woman in pink is showing the level of concentration required. The guy in the middle is looking smug because he's weighing up the competition and not thinking too much of it. He went on to win. The guy to the back is demonstrating how not to do it, catching the egg low and heavy-handed, inevitably leading to a mess of yolk in the hands (although better than having it in the face). The girl on the right is ... well, just being a bit of a girl. Hope that doesn't offend anyone! It doesn't take much imagination to understand how much fun this is to both watch and play!

After the race yesterday the legs are feeling a bit sore, but in a pleasant kind of way. I rather like this feeling. I've hung out with the boys watching some cricket and football, caught up with some bits of work that didn't get done last week, and went for a ride on the bike this evening. As has so often been the case this summer, the light was beautiful.