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Greasy Pole Competition
There can be no doubt that by far the most comic and laughable item on the programme of an up-river Regatta is the competition in walking the greasy pole. A scaffold pole is placed in a horizontal position, over deep water, smeared with grease, and the competitors have to walk from one end to the other to win the prize. Many of them fall off almost immediately, others get half-way before their feet slip and they are precipitated in all sorts of strange attitudes into the water below. There are dozens of attempts within the compass of this one film, which is very comic and laughable.
The Era, London, December 22, 1900, p. 28.