TOE-TO-TOE COMBAT

It's hard to believe, but a small Derbyshire town has hosted one of the strangest competitive sports in the world for 50 years. Elizabeth McCafferty watches from the sidelines

- Elizabeth McCafferty

Toe-wrestler Lisa Shenton is sitting on the floor of a pub in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, and stretching out her thigh muscles. "It's the 14th year I've competed," she tells me, while surrounded by buckets of soapy water for competitors to scrub their feet. “I’m currently the six-time world champion and I plan on making that seven today.”

It is late August and around 200 people – including myself – have gathered in Ashbourne’s market square to watch 28 toe wrestlers fight for victory. An 8ft stage has been erected; on top of it has been placed a “toedium” for competitors to duke it out. The goal of toe wrestling is to push your opponent’s foot onto a horizontal board using only your big toe, which is interlocked with the big toe of your competitor. You both begin with your right foot, and once one of you has scored a point, you both go at it again with your left.

Strangers’ toes have been annually interlocked in Ashbourne for the last 50 years. It all began in 1974, when a group of men began a booze-fuelled brainstorm to try and create a sport they’d actually be good at. Absurdly, this was toe wrestling. It quickly went global, with people travelling from India, Japan, Canada and the rest of the UK to compete and cheer on from the sidelines. It was actually a Canadian who won the inaugural toe wrestle back in 1975.