From proms to sumo

Royal Albert Hall hosts star wrestlers in London for first time in three decades

- Andy Bull

Major League Baseball is played at the Olympic Stadium, Tottenham's ground is a second home for the National Football League, and the National Basketball Association is staging a game at the 02 Arena next year, but it's been a long time since London hosted anything on the scale of the Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall, beginning today.

Forty wrestlers have flown over from Japan to compete in it. That's around six tonnes of elite athlete to be fed, watered, transported and supported.

"We've actually had to source and buy new chairs which can take up to 200kg in weight," said Matthew Todd, the hall's harassed director of programming. "Our usual standard is only 100kg." They've also had to reinforce the toilets. "It's the ones that are screwed into the wall which are the most challenging," Todd explained wearily. They've also had to take out special insurance because "the jeopardy of having a ringside cushion is fairly substantial". And don't ask him about the rice bill. "It's substantial," he said. "I know the wholesaler actually ran out of noodles, because we'd already ordered so many from them."

Last Saturday Billy Strings was playing bluegrass here and next Monday the Bournemouth Philharmonic will be performing.

For the week in between the two, the hall has been converted into a sumo dohyō. A five-metre wide pile of pounded clay and earth squats in the middle of the hall, and a six-tonne wooden roof, purpose-built for the occasion, is suspended overhead. Tennis matches, boxing fights and even a strongman contest have been held there.