An international toe wrestling competition returned to Derbyshire, as competitors hoped to win a boosted prize pot. The World Toe Wrestling Championship took place at the Bentley Brook Inn in Fenny Bentley, with the prize money increasing to £5,000 each, up from £1,000, for the men’s and women’s winners. Defending three-time champion Ben Woodroffe, 36, was among those hoping to win the competition, having had his toenails surgically removed to “aid dexterity and toe stamina”. “You have to make sacrifices to be great in sport,” he said.
BBC News (Daragh Brady)
Tattoo much
Identical twins have found a way to define their own individuality – with £40,000 of tattoos. Dylan Wearing, 24, and brother Drew say people no longer confuse them after their “addiction” led to artwork covering both their faces and bodies. Father-of-one Dylan said: “Once I started getting my arms, my legs and my back all finished I eventually started running out of room.”
Birmingham Live (Amanda Welles)
A slight cock-up
Britain’s official cycling body has apologised for censoring the name of the Welsh village, Three Cocks, on its events system. The village near Brecon hosted two stages of the national junior road races, but the listed schedule replaced “Cocks” with five asterisks on its website. A spokesman said: “We apologise for this accidental censorship which was caused by some overly sensitive filters on our website.”
BBC News (David Lamming)
[See also: Farage rises. Burnham watches. But Starmer fights on]
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This article appears in the 08 Oct 2025 issue of the New Statesman, The truth about small boats