Friday Extra Show: the Snail Master got the extended cut
Extra podcast edition
Chris began March by returning to one of his favourite Ask Me Anything callers.
Neil from Norfolk had introduced himself as a snail master, a title which sounded invented until he explained that he helped organise the World Snail Racing Championships.
The weekday conversation had generated more questions than Radio 1 could fit into the show.
Friday gave him the longer interview.
The race was only 13 inches
Neil explained that the racing surface used concentric circles.
The snails started in the centre.
The first one to reach the outer ring, around 13 inches away, won.
A normal race could take two or three minutes.
That sounded slow until Neil introduced the sport’s great record holder.
Archie set the recognised world record in 1996, completing the course in roughly two minutes.
Neil compared him with Usain Bolt.
Archie was the snail every modern competitor was effectively chasing.
Painting a shell could cost the race
Some competitors decorated their snails so they were easy to identify.
Flags and colours appeared on shells, particularly when people wanted a snail to represent a country.
Neil warned that too much paint could become a disadvantage.
A decorated shell added weight.
The fastest strategy was therefore to resist turning the animal into a tiny national billboard.
Scott and Chris loved the seriousness with which Neil could discuss aerodynamics, moisture and racing conditions for something moving 13 inches across a table.
The course had to be damp
The racing surface was kept moist so the snails could move properly.
Neil said individual competitors could appear to respond differently depending on conditions, though there was only so much anybody could realistically do to “train” a snail.
The championships had attracted competitors and visitors from many countries.
The actual racing snails themselves were still British.
That distinction mattered to Neil.
The LOLathon road trip was next
The podcast then looked ahead to the show’s biggest March project.
Scott and Chris were preparing another 24-hour LOLathon for Comic Relief.
Before it began, Radio 1 would take an enormous red Book of LOL around Britain and Ireland, asking people in places with ridiculous names to contribute jokes.
Chris was due on the road.
The Friday Extra Show replayed moments from previous LOLathons and made clear that the station was about to spend the next week thinking almost exclusively about jokes.
Neil had already provided the perfect warm-up.
A man who professionally raced snails was difficult to follow.
COMMENTS