Toe wrestlers battle for glory at quirky championship

Ben Woodroffe, known as Toe-tal Destruction, and Lisa Shenton, who competes as Twinkletoes, won the men’s and women’s titles as the World Toe Wrestling Championship marked its 50th anniversary in Ashbourne Market Place, Derbyshire. The event, born in 1976 from a group of friends in the county, brought together a sport that looks comic from a distance but still asks for balance, grip, leverage and foot strength.

Toe wrestling has endured because its competitors treat the contest with the same discipline seen in better-known sports. Matches begin with opponents locking big toes and trying to pin the other foot down, a format that gives the championship its odd visual appeal while rewarding stamina and technique. One version of the rules says wrestlers must win two rounds out of three, starting with the right foot before switching to the left.

The field has also become more organized over time. The official World Toe Wrestling Federation now promotes the championships and invites competitors to register, while the official toe wrestling site says applications are open for the 2026 World Championship, which will have 32 places and a £9,000 prize fund. Entry is free, a sign that the event still holds onto its village-fair roots even as it has built a more formal structure.

The championship’s reach now extends well beyond Derbyshire. Several accounts say wrestlers travel from around the world to compete, giving the sport an international cast despite its local origins. Guinness World Records also keeps a mark for the most Toe Wrestling World Championships won by a man, underscoring that the discipline has produced repeat champions and long-running rivalries rather than one-off novelty winners.

That mix of spectacle and commitment is what has kept toe wrestling in the calendar for decades. In Ashbourne, the contest again turned an eccentric idea into a lived tradition, with medals, titles and a growing prize fund giving the sport enough seriousness to carry its jokes.