World News for Students of English

12-05-2015 15:00

Of all the sports in the world, this one must be one of the weirdest – extreme ironing! And now the man who invented it, has decided to make a comeback after 11 years of self-denial.

Rock-climbing Brit Phil Shaw, otherwise known as Steam,claims to have invented the past time when he came home to find a pile of ironing and decided to take the boredom out of the domestic chore by doing it on the edge of a cliff.

Others rose to the challenge and have ironed underwater, upside down on a climbing wall, and even on the back of a cow.

As career and family commitments took over, Shaw gave up his hobby, but he’s now back in training with his long-suffering wife Starch running through woods in southern England, as they gear up for fresh challenges.

“I’d almost forgotten how people respond to it, and sometimes they just look confused, other times they laugh, other times they ignore you. But it’s always fun just to see how people respond to it, and you know, at the end of the day it’s a bit of fun and people enjoy it.

In 2002, Shaw and a group of friends won the first and only Extreme Ironing World Championships in Germany and they took the sport on a tour in the United States two years later. So who knows, with Steam’s comeback, there might be another tour to look forward to!

Difficult words: self-denial (when you do not do something that you want to do), pile (many thing on top one another), gear up (to prepare).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com