Feuding villages settle scores through wheelie bin race

Two German villages are planning to try settling a centuries-old row over which one is best with a race to see whose wheelie bins are fastest.

The villages of Glees and Wassenach, in western Germany, have had a long-running spat over which is better - at everything from ploughing the straightest lines to making the biggest sausages.

Now the dispute has moved into the relatively obscure field of downhill wheelie bin racing - in which competitors speed down a hill clinging to the back of their council-provided waste receptacles.

But officials have discovered that some contestants have already been resorting to nefarious means to gain an advantage.

'They are supposed to be exactly as the council provided them, but we have found one or two trying to improve their chances with unapproved adaptations like skateboard wheels,' commented one official.

Impressively, the results of the race will be screened nationwide on a cable and satellite channel.