Monday, September 16, 2024

Dwile flonking team wins another Gold for Britain

By Our Olympics Staff

Suffolk was celebrating today after its dwile-flonking Olympians added yet another Gold for Team GB in Rio.

The awesome foursome from Beccles beat Albania in a nail-biting final to clinch Britain’s first Gold in dwile flonking since it was reintroduced as an Olympic sport in 1968.

Sadly their victory will not be seen on television because the sport, which began in rural East Anglia in the 17th Century, involves alcohol and heavy drinking.

But photographs from Brazil show Rodger Smith from Beccles successfully tossing his beer-soaked dwile at hapless Albanians.

The elitist sport remains popular in many countries across the world, although America disappointed by crashing out in the qualifiers to Kazakhstan.

Dwile flonking involves two teams. One stands in a circle around an opposition flonker, who has a cloth – or dwile – which he soaks in a bucket of beer at his feet and drapes over a stick.

He then spins around and tries to release the dwile so that it strikes one of the other team. If he fails, he has to drink the contents of the bucket (traditionally Adnams).

This continues in rotation until the last team standing wins. In rare circumstances it is settled with a points system.

Beccles in Suffolk is the world headquarters for dwile flonking after the sport was revived there in the mid 1960s.

Smith, 67, competes for Team GB with fellow Beccles farmers Tim Smith, Dave Smith and Bill Smith.

He said: “Winning gold is a dream come true, and is reward for hours of hard training in pub car parks across East Anglia. It’s just a shame my wife Liz was not able to be here to see it. She was at home getting the harvest in.”

There are moves to add Dwile Flonking to the Winter Olympics as well, because the sport is an all-year pursuit.

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