A well-known annual Brigg event will return on Sunday (June 20), the sponsored wheelbarrow race. The competing pairs in their chosen "chariots" will race round town centre hostelries, drinking half-a-pint in each. The fun starts at 11am, and spectators are very welcome.
The route takes in the Britannia, White Horse, Exchange, Servicemen's Club, Woolpack, White Hart, Yarborough Hunt, Nelthorpe Arms (Scanlon's), Lord Nelson and Dying Gladiator.
"All proceeds will go to Cancer Research," says the organiser at Sandwich Heaven in the Market Place, from where the event is being co-ordinated. "Please support the race in any way you can with either sponsorship of money or by donating any wheelbarrows to the teams participating."
We understand Brigg Town Mayor Coun Ben Nobbs will be in the Market Place, supporting the event, and making presentations.
Men and women will be competing in Sunday's event, which always proves a few laughs along the way.
Exactly when the Brigg wheelbarrow race started, and when the last one was run seems to have been become clouded in the midsts of time and the consumption of all that ale. We are pretty sure it was first run in the late 1970s; estimates on when the last was staged range from 1995 to seven years ago.
Sandwich Heaven has now been taken over by a well-known Brigg sportsman of the past, who is the driving force behind the return of the wheelbarrow race. We will bring you the full story in due course, once the race is over.
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3 comments:
Well done to the anonymous Brigg sportsman for starting up the wheelbarrow race . Nostalgia did print a very early photo of competitors outside the White Hart . Past winners were Graham Holmes and partner who won the event several years running . The race was not without contoversy , some of the wheelbarrows were souped up , some were not even wheelbarrows . Some took the shortcut from the Black Bull striaght to the Gladiator . Previous fancy dress competitors were Lee Fielden as a pint of Guiness , Col Mumby as a nurse and various other disguises .
A good laugh all round for a good cause , well done Mr ?????? .
Bring Mumby on ...
I agree with you, re wheelbarrow designs, gmsithy.
Without distracting from the fun of event, 'a wheelbarrow' should be defined ....ie, 'not more than 3 wheels'. Otherwise, the race can become a shopping trolley race with competitors having various degrees of advantage/disavantage.
Despite the fun element, the wide interpretation of a 'wheelbarrow' engendered in the past, an undercurrent of moans.
Another suggestion is that the race could become 'a stretcher' race. For example, competitors carry a set weight (bags of sand), according to gender mix and age.
This has the advantage of standardising basic equipment and the simplicity of a strecther will open the event to more people.
In consequnece, pubs will becone temporary emergency A&D centres - (ALE & DRINKING)
Another duo, I (think) I can remember is Adrian Gibbons and his girlfriend (now his missus).
My daughter with her then boyfriend (both in the 6th Form...and age related drinking rules were a bit flexible!!!)took part for a couple of years...on one occasion, my daughter became the pusher (as, I think the lad had hurt his ankle on part of the course.)
During another year, my daugher got a prize for being one of the first, all-girl, team to finish.
If I recall properly, when it was helt in the 1980's, both members of the team had to down a half-pint of beer....as time progressed, a glass of orange was offered as an alternative.....and was there a year (as there was some ?medical concern expressed about the mismatch of rapid drinking and hard excercise) when only one of the team had to down a half-pint of whatever?
I do remember a number of competitors being sick once they had finished the course....so avoid standing too close to Sunday's participants!!
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