Or actually, Todeswand(en).
On our recent 'cultural' (read, BEER!) trip to Germany, we attended the utterly fabulous Oktoberfest. This celebration of the hop/yeast/water mix is simply the best fun you can have looking at the bottom of a litre beer glass from the inside.
Outside of the HUGE drinking marquees is an equally HUGE funfair.
Among the usual hair-raising wild yahoos, there are stalls of very varying interest. I saw a 'Mouse Circus', an old-style Boxing Booth and much other weirdness.
One of my good pals is a Bike-freak. He LOVES motorcycles. So much so that he found the best job in the world for him. He sells them for a living...
He has been going on at me for ages about 'The Wall of Death'. Insisting that I should see one before I die, he was delighted when we found out that they still exist in less Health and Safety-conscious circumstances such as those found at European Street Fairs.
We duly sought out the 'Todeswand', as it is called in the Deutsch, paid our Drei Euros and went inside. Amid the stench of unburned petrol, in the dim light and loud rumble of old 'Indian' engines, we witnessed a most beguiling, enchanting and downright SCARY sight.
Blokes whirred around this timber wall at 40mph or so on old motorbikes. So what? SO, they were standing, in reverse, waving to the crowd, three in a row, up and down around and around, even freaking BLINDFOLD! Brave, brave, crazy guys......I was gob-smacked.
So, what on earth is the Fat Boy going on about now?
Todeswanden....on golf courses, of course!
I couldn't help but think of wonderful, splendid walls of death which I have encountered with a golf ball. TOC 2nd green over there on the right hand side, the fifth, the front of the 17th and most especially, that MAD front of the tenth. What fun. Precise judgement required when the flag is just over the lip of the 'Todeswand', but if you get it right, what reward!
Todeswanden - I hope you enjoy them as much as I. A Great, great, great design element. Long live the Todeswand!
FBD.