Furious action at Alcester Pancake Races 2015

After the High Street had been closed and cleared of cars, the early starters of pre-school age children were called to line up outside the Chinatown restaurant, with the finishing tape setup outside St. Nicholas Church at the top of the High Street.
The whistle sounded and the small children (ably assisted my Mums and Dads) raced up the High Street to great encouragement from the large crowd. After the preschool and nursery children had raced up the High Street, with a mixture of smiles, laughter, and tears we moved on to the school age children.

As we went through the older ages of Infant and Junior school children the racing got fiercer and the speed at the line was higher, which the people behind the tape standing back so they didn’t get clouted by the flying pans the children were carrying.
This included a race for the local Brownies pack.

All the children got lolly pops for taking part and the first three of each race got an extra prize, with the winner's name announced over the PA by an official of the Alcester Court Leet.

After about 20 races we got onto the shop and pub relay with shops such as Waitrose and the Lord Nelson and Turks Head. In this race, each team had three runners with the course starting at the bottom of the High Street outside the Post Office, with an enforced stop outside Barclays where the pancake had to be tossed and then on up to the top of the course outside the church for a handover.

The race started off at a fierce pace with the pubs fighting it out with the shops and a few spills as runners hit the tarmac. After a strong run, the Lord Nelson pub took the title.

To finish off the Ladies had their race from Barclays to the finish before the Alcester Court Leet thanked the runners and sponsors Simply Fresh and Sanders and Sanders and the spectators for turning up.