Extreme Sports.

 RHYS BOWEN:  It's time for a Sunday chuckle after a stressful week.

I come from an island nation full of eccentrics, strange traditions and mind-boggling accomplishments. Anyone who has watched cricket or Morris Dancing knows that the English are not quite sane.

Until recently almost every English village had some kind of weird and wonderful sport or tradition. Some still exist. There is the cheese rolling event in which giant wheels of cheese are rolled down a hill, probably crushing half the competitors. There is wife-carrying (you'd better marry a small slim girl if you want to live in that village). And don't forget pancake tossing on Shrove Tuesday. Every village summer fete has the classics: egg and spoon race, sack race, three legged race. I grew up doing all of these.

Recently a new class of absurdity has arisen: Extreme sports.

There is bog snorkeling. The competitors put on snorkel and mask and try to swim/crawl/slither down a length of muddy ditch or bog.  No, that wouldn't be my Sunday afternoon activity.

But the most recent one I have discovered sent shivers down my spine. EXTREME IRONING.

Those of you who know how I feel about ironing in a warm, safe kitchen will know that I am never never ever going to sign up for this. What is it, you ask? Participants carry an iron and ironing board to an absurdly dangerous location then proceed to iron a shirt. (I should point out that there is no electricity in any of these locations so the shirt won't be properly ironed, so the whole task is for nothing... AND they don't even have the spray bottle of water to get out the worst creases)

Then they photograph themselves doing their ironing. Why? 

And this makes me wonder what extreme sport will come next. What could I invent?  Reciting the Ancient Mariner through a long tube while diving among sharks?

Painting a picture while hanging upside down from the North Face of the Eiger?

Doing needlepoint by touch only in a deep cave?

Anything that didn't involve ironing. (I've just bought three pairs of rayon summer pants. Hand wash. Line dry. What was I thinking? I'll have to find where I have hidden the ironing board.)

Now it's your turn. Invent the most ridiculous extreme sport you can imagine and let's see if anyone is fool enough to try it!