Bed Race All Set for 10th June 2017
The 2017 Great Knaresborough Bed Race will be held on 10th June 2017 with all arrangements now well in hand. The programme for the day is as usual:
From 9.00 am beds and teams will arrive at Knaresborough Castle to be decorated in this year's theme: 'Heroes and Villains'.
Between 11.00 am and noon the judging will take place for the 'Best Dressed Bed' awards. The results will be announced shortly after 12.00 pm.
The teams then assemble in race order with the winner of the Best Dressed Bed award leading off the Parade to the Race starting point. The Parade leaves the Castle grounds at around 1.00 pm passing through the Market Place and down the High Street to Bond End. The teams enter the grounds of Conyngham Hall to the start.
The last of the parading teams will arrive at the race starting point before 2.00 pm and the decorations of bed and teams are divested and the teams adopt racing trim.
The Race itself starts at 3.00 pm. Teams head off in rough order of fastest to slowest at 10-second intervals. In this way the last team is likely to have started their race sometime before 3.20 pm.
The fastest teams complete the course in under 14 minutes - in other words, before the last of the teams have set off. The slowest teams take around 25 minutes.
The course is 2.4 miles (4 kilometres). It takes the teams out of Conyngham Hall and along Waterside, then up the very steep climb of Castle Ings and Brewerton Street. Then it is around the Market Place, down the High Street and Bond End, and across High Bridge to the Starbeck side of the river. The final stage is through McIntosh fields before the climatic 30-yard swim through the ever-icy waters of the River Nidd - runners, riders and beds as well.
To watch the River Crossing come to Conyngham Hall fields where we have a large screen TV sponsored by CNG.
The Great Knaresborough Bed Race is organised by the volunteers of the Knaresborough Lions Club. Monies raised by the event over and above the expense of putting on Bed Race go to local charities and good causes. There are opportunities for spectators to make donations on the day or to buy a programme for £2 which gives entry to the grounds of Conyngham Hall. Please support the Lions in our efforts to make this a hugely enjoyable family day.
