Planet Steel Wins Stellar 50th Bed Race
Planet Steel became a first-time winner of the Great Knaresborough Bed Race, winning by the finest of margins just 0.3 of a second ahead of last year’s winners Harrogate Harriers. Ripon Runners Girls again won the Fastest Female Team and St John’s Juggernauts had the Best Dressed Bed.
Planet Steel in action
Record crowds turned out to watch Bed Race mark its spectacular half-century on Saturday, 13 June, when the Knaresborough weather gods were extraordinarily kind to the event with none of the predicted rain arriving until after the Race was over.
The organisers, the Knaresborough Lions, are hoping that charitable receipts raised by the teams, the various community and charity groups, and by the Lions themselves might top £100,000 for the first time.
The Great Knaresborough Bed Race was first staged in 1966 when four teams took part. By the 1970s the event had established itself as one of the largest community events staged in the North of England. Over the years it has gone from being purely an athletic contest among teams of six runners and a passenger, to a wild pageant of decorated beds and teams in fancy dress, and has spawned bed races all over the world.
It is estimated that 30,000 people visited Knaresborough on Saturday to watch the 90 teams take part. The beds gathered at the Town’s Castle in the morning where they were judged for the Best Dressed Bed in the theme of the year, ‘Popular Culture from the Past 50 Years’. The winners, St John’s Juggernauts, chose the making of wildlife films.
Other designs featured flower power, lego men and women, Star Trek, punks and rockers, daleks, lifeguards and many others, expressing the creativity of those who take part in this community event - as well as the participants’ taste for cross-dressing! Many observers said that the overall standard was as good as ever.
The Race was staged in almost flawless conditions with a low River Nidd for the swim. While this made the river crossing easier, it meant the entry and exit was harder than usual.
Best Dressed Bed from St John's Juggernauts.
Carol Jones was one of the guests at the event. She was the passenger on the winning bed in 1969. Bed Race has always been a family affair in Knaresborough and this year Bob Chatten ran in a race in which he has taken part since 1973. His daughter Fiona also participated as she has for well over a decade, and his granddaughter Beth took part for the first time as a passenger.
