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Top Toe Wrestler Crowned - Could odd sports save sports TV?

by LotusFlower | June 25, 2009 at 11:21 am

280 views | 12 Recommendations | 3 comments

Blurton is somewhere that you've probably never heard of.

A place near Stoke-on-Trent in the UK.

Unremarkable perhaps but it's where the very remarkable new World Toe Wrestling Champion Lisa Shenton comes from.

Lisa is one of many who take part in what we might call 'odd sports' but such sports which include bog snorkeling and chess boxing perhaps deserve a wider audience.

Fans of such sports - and there are many, although Lisa only had one - an eleven year old from Derby County's under-10s girls soccer team that Lisa also happens to manage, would like to see at least some of them considered for Olympic status.

Toe Wrestling, which started in 1976 in the county of Derbyshire UK, did itself in 1997 apply to become an official Olympic sport but alas the application was kicked out.

Some believe that as the major sports ask for increasingly high fees for television rights and the recession 'bites in' that the future of TV sports might be with the 'odd sports'.

Odd Sports could be the saving of failed sports channels such as Ireland's Setanta that recently lost coverage of the Premiership League soccer coverage and have had to cease broadcasting to England.

Imagine - a night in front of the telly with a pie, a pint and toe wrestling.

This is tomorrow calling.

LISA Shenton is a gifted footballer and an accomplished horsewoman.

But it's a different sport entirely that has lifted the 27-year-old from Blurton to the dizzy heights of global supremacy.

Lisa, known to her supporters as Twinkle Toes, is the new Ladies World Toe Wrestling Champion.

She won the title at the second attempt, overcoming opponents like Mrs Toeminator and a woman styling herself as Toe-Twister.

Toe wrestling may seem a tad frivolous as competitive sports go, but the world title is fiercely contested and contenders need to be focused and determined to prevail.

"It takes a combination of technique and physical strength," said Lisa. "I'm a very physical person, and I think that made the difference on the day."

For Lisa, the spur this time was having been beaten by the formidable Mrs Toeminator last year.

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Amy Judd

at 11:40 on June 25th, 2009

I've never heard of this before, but I would seriously love to be known as 'Mrs Toeminator' - that 's hilarious!

mbaumgartner

at 10:04 on June 26th, 2009

I'm going to look up chess-boxing... that sounds like it could have a wide range of participants. They could get the summer Olympics over more quickly by combining sports - I've always wanted to see rhythmic gymnastics and javelin at the same time. Then there might be room for some lesser-known sports.