A report by Year 12 student, George.

It was an incredible opportunity to be a delegate for the first International Cultural and Sports Heritage Festival in Tunis. This was a festival organised by the Tunisian Olympic Committee, in order to demonstrate the traditional sports, particularly wrestling, of many European nations, including Spain, France and Italy. 

I practice Cumberland and Westmoreland wrestling, a form of wrestling from the North of England that is over a thousand years old. In this type of wrestling, you put your left arm over your opponent’s right shoulder and right arm underneath their left, and then take an s-grip bind on their back. In order to win, you must put your opponent on the ground without breaking your bind. At its peak in the 1800s, it would draw in thousands of people in London, but now it is mainly practiced at local shows in Northumberland, Cumbria and parts of Lancashire. However, there is also an international competition every year held in Brittany, as they do their own variation of “backhold wrestling”. There is also a traditional costume, longjons, a vest and a velvet centrepiece, all embroidered with flowers. 

Although I have competed in Brittany before, I never expected to be able to go to such a major event and demonstrate Cumberland Wrestling. Although the 14 hour journey to Tunis wasn’t very enjoyable, the honour of being able to represent England but, more importantly, Northumberland at an Olympic event was amazing. When we arrived in Tunis, we were greeted as sporting stars, although we didn’t really look like athletes. However, the Tunisian people treated us with masses of respect and kindness, and we made sure to reciprocate it. 

The next day, we met the rest of the delegations from across Europe. There were wrestlers from Iceland, Spain, Italy, Brittany and North Macedonia, as well as a team of Oina players from Romania, a combination of dodgeball and cricket. We then learnt about all the traditional styles of wrestling from across Europe-Gouren from Brittany, Glíma from Iceland, Lucha Leonesa from Spain and Pelivansko borenje from North Macedonia. All of these sports are centuries old and have been practiced for generations, and prove that the true universal sport is wrestling. Then a legend of the Tunisian style of wrestling, Dr Ezzidine Bouzid taught the delegations about Gresh. The Italian delegation then presented their aims of restoring their traditional form of wrestling as it disappeared with the Second World War, which had major effects on all these forms of wrestling. Although, they did also teach us about the next step in wrestling- the world Nomad Games, where wrestling is an official event for an Olympic level competition for traditional sports.

The next day was the day of the competition. From 10am till 6 that night we demonstrated all the styles of wrestling we had learnt about previously, as well as competitions of Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling. However, the main event was Cumberland wrestling, with even some of Tunisia’s own Olympic wrestlers trying. Although there were difficulties teaching Cumberland wrestling due to the language barrier, after a few hours they eventually understood the concepts of how to wrestle.

We ended the day by meeting the Olympic President of Tunisia, a massively important figure in African sports.It was an incredible moment to meet someone as significant, and something I will never forget. Our delegation was then presented with a plaque, commemorating our attendance at the first event of this level dedicated to the different cultural sports from across Europe.

I truly loved my time in Tunisia, and being able to represent my sport, Northumberland, my country and my school at this event was an honour and something I hope to be able to do again, or at another level of importance at the World Nomad Games.