A court ruling this month has thrown the spotlight on what some consider a quintessentially British pastime: streaking, or running around naked in public, preferably with a large crowd watching.
Serial streaker Mark Roberts, 42, managed to avoid a court order banning him from exposing himself at public events last Tuesday.
Over the years, Roberts has stripped off at events including Golf's Ryder Cup, the UEFA and European Cup football finals, the Super Bowl in the US and, more chillingly, the Winter Olympics in Italy.
PHOTO: AFP
But he is not the only one: big British sporting events, particularly in the summer, have long been the scene of public clothes-shedding.
"Ever since the kindly Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets to help the people of Coventry, the British have had a soft spot for streakers," the Independent said, alongside a photo spread of top past streaking moments.
These include the almost-iconic picture of 25-year-old Australian accountant Michael O'Brian -- bearded, arms held out by police and with a strategically placed bobby's helmet -- at Twickenham rugby ground in 1974.
Cricket fans were briefly diverted from slow ball action on a stiflingly hot afternoon at Lord's in 1975 when Michael Angelow ran onto the pitch and leapt acrobatically over the stumps, stark naked.
There has even been celebrity streaking. Scottish comedian Billy Connolly stripped off and ran round London's Piccadilly Circus naked as a charity stunt in 2001, watched by over 12 million TV viewers.
Serial streaker Roberts had faced being slapped with an anti-social behavior order after he breached security at the last hole of the British Open Golf Championship last year.
But his lawyer, Laurence Lee, pointed out that his client, who over the years had performed some 380 streaks, had not offended in the past year.
"My client has turned over a new fig leaf. He accepts that some people might be offended," he said.
Judge Nick Sanders rejected the police application with the explanation: "What Mister Roberts does may be annoying but, in my opinion, it does not amount to anti-social behavior."
Speaking afterwards, Roberts was unrepentant.
"I thought it was absolutely ridiculous, accusing me of anti-social behavior. What I do is something totally the opposite. I try to entertain people," he said.
Of course, he enjoys the adrenalin rush. He recalled his first-ever streak in 1993 at the Rugby Sevens in Hong Kong, the result of a drunken bet the night before.
"I ran out onto the pitch and there were 65,000 screaming their heads off with excitement," he said, also recounting being chased by police at half-time in the 2004 Super Bowl.
Doctor Glenn Wilson, of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, said streaking is the result of a basic urge in a certain personality type.
"There is an ancient urge, it's like `daddy, mummy look at me' as a child jumps into a swimming pool. We all crave attention, some more than others," he said.
Also fueling the phenomenon is the premium that is put on fame in the modern world, in particular in the modern celebrity-obsessed culture of countries like Britain, he said.
"Fame equals exposure. It's not a case of great achievements in art or science or the military that counts for fame any more, it is simply exposure in the tabloids or on television," he said.
Not everyone is sure that streaking is entirely harmless, however.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to