THE Robert Dover Games, known locally at the Cotswold Olimpicks are gearing up for another year of quirky fun and extraordinary games.

Held on Friday June 3, near Chipping Campden, the games attract a huge audience to watch a bizarre array of activities from wheelbarrow racing with real wheelbarrows to shin-kicking contests, static jumping, spurning the barre - an English version of Scotland's tossing the caber, hammer throw and putting the shot. There is also a popular tug-of war-contest, a five-mile run and children's cross country.

This year a raft of new faces have been recruited onto the committee and there will be some new additions to the games which are played out on Dover's Hill.

Robert Dover was a lawyer and came up with the idea of the games. It is believed the first one was held in 1612 and was a forerunner to the Modern Olympics.

As part of their successful bid for the London 2012 Games, the British Olympic Association stated the London Games would mark the unique anniversary of 400 years of the first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings.

On Saturday there will be annual Shuttlebrook Wake, in Chipping Campden. where there is music and dancing.