HUNDREDS braved the wet weather at Winchester Cathedral to witness the annual pancake race.
Tuesday, February 13 marked Shrove Tuesday, along with the return of Winchester Rotary’s popular pancake race in the cathedral’s outer close.
This year the race was in aid of Winchester Hospice.
Despite the cold, hundreds of people came out to see 42 teams, including local businesses, charities, schools and city councillors compete for prizes including best attire, best name and overall race winner.
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With their frying pans at the ready, competitors had to run a stretch of 38m and flip their pancakes three times – at the beginning, middle and end of their leg before handing them over to their teammate.
The Royal Hotel Winchester Team were the overall winners of the day, coming first in their heat and semi-final races and beating the Carter Jonas team in the final.
Pablo Ramirez, of the Royal Hotel team, told the Chronicle: “It feels really good to win. We were running for a good cause, to raise funds and support a charity, and to help those who need it. So, I’m more than happy that we could help for that purpose.”
Other winners during the day included the team from Tesco, who managed to win the best name prize for their team’s name “Pirates of the Carrot-Bean-Aisle”, and the Winchester Round Table who took home best costume.
Winchester Rotary president Les Haswell said: “I think today has gone very well.
“We had a record number - 42 entrants - and we got everyone across the finish line without injury, which is quite a feat. It’s been good fun. The weather has been a bit damp and awful, but everyone has enjoyed themselves and got into the spirit of things, and at the end of the day they’ve probably managed to raise a few thousand pounds for Winchester Hospice.
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“Rotary is one of these organisations that everyone thinks is very good until they think ‘Actually, what does it do?’
“And today is an example of what Rotary does; it gets involved with the community and community projects, and tries to help to raise funds. Today we are raising funds for the Winchester Hospice – originally it was to get the hospice up and running – we presented them with a cheque five years ago – but it needs to keep running, and that’s why we’re doing it.”
To watch the event, see the outfits and hear from some of the runners, watch the Chronicle's Facebook Live video below.
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