Forget London 2012... try sports from 1908 instead

Croquet used to be an Olympic event. Table tennis, long jump and football still are. But the emphasis at an Edwardian sports day for children at the Beamish Museum was on those sports from the early 1900s which never quite made it to the Games - and which you may never even have heard of.

For example, sheaf tossing, where a sack of corn sheaves is thrown backwards over a bar. If the bar falls off, you lose the game. Hula hooping, an egg and spoon race and ping pong all featured too.

"I think it's about having a go and trying, and you might find a new talent that you didn't know you had. That I think is one of the messages of the Olympics too," said Helen Barker, head of community participation at the museum.

The event marked exactly one month to go until the start of the London Olympics and was one of several similar sports days happening all round the region.

The Edwardian sports will be available for families visiting Beamish all through the period of the Olympics.