Pints and pounds... (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Pints and pounds...

4:30pm Thursday 28th May 2009

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ROBOTS, yokels and glam-rockers were all rattling buckets as a fundraising pub race pulled in thousands of pounds – and saw plenty of pints being pulled.

Hundreds of people in Whitchurch cheered on, and donated cash to, the 28 teams of drinkers in this year’s Whitchurch Pub Race, who stumbled round a course while tied together on a balmy Bank Holiday evening.

As well as getting sponsorship, the teams of three to six people – each of whom had to drink a half pint of beer at eight different stops between the Prince Regent pub and the Whitchurch Sports and Social Club – also carried buckets on the night to raise extra funds for local good causes.

The 2009 Whitchurch Pub Race featured 10 teams more than last year’s event. The event – which was revived last year – is one of several that make up the Whitchurch Festival.

Festival committee chairman Rob Dunlop said: “It was absolutely awesome – the teams put so much effort into their costumes.

“There was a team dressed as local yokels, with straw coming out of their hats, and another with inflatable guitars who were dressed as glam-rockers. One team dressed as the Jackson Five, had a generator and did a dance routine at each stop!

“There were barbecues cooking around the town and people handing out food to the runners – some of them took three or four hours to get round.”

There were four winning teams in different categories.

The Stone Age Babes raised the most money overall with a total of £640.83, Team Kiss Fist raised the most on the day itself, having collected £109.43, the best fancy dress accolade was awarded to the Whitchurch Stranglebots, dressed as robots in cardboard boxes and team Good, Bad and The Ugly were the fastest round the course, completing the two-mile course with beer stops in just 23 minutes.

Mr Dunlop, of Queens Road, Whitchurch, said the event has been much bigger this year than in 2008, when £1,200 was raised.

He said so far the fundraisers have pulled in over £2,400, but he estimates this total could reach £3,000 once all sponsorship money has been collected by the almost 120 people who took part. The funds will go to local groups, organisations and charities.

The next Whitchurch Festival event is the Carnival Procession on June 20.

More information is available at whitchurchfestival.org.uk.

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