Poulters' Company Pancake Race
9th February 2016It was cold but it was dry thank goodness, on Shrove Tuesday, when we assembled in great numbers in Guildhall Yard for the annual Poulters' Company Pancake race. We entered four members of the Company. The Master in the Masters' race, The Senior Warden, Charles Miller in the Novelty Race and Court Assistants Andrew Golding and Elise Rasmussen in the Court Assistants' races. We avoided the qualifying race for Masters due to the fact that the Immediate Past Master when he was Master was nursing a post-operative foot and employed a substitute runner, a young and fast Liveryman. As a result of his winning that race, this year I found myself running amongst a bunch of fit fellow Masters well up in the field. No matter. I was there to show the flag, hobble sedately up and down the Guildhall yard tossing my pancake in the right place and not to fall down. I achieved all my objectives and in a heat of five Masters came a respectable fourth having beaten the Glovers, who didn’t turn up.
The rest of the team acquitted themselves well, especially the brave Senior Warden dressed as Sherlock Holmes searching for the cure for diabetes, this being one of the Lord Mayor's charities in the manner of which contestants had to dress up. Sadly the judges didn’t really see the point and he did not receive the third prize that he richly deserved, neither did he complete his race without mishap having had a collision at the turn with the adjacent runner and fell flat on his knees and tummy. Like the gritty Tobacco Pipe Maker that he surely is he picked himself up and staggered to the finish amid cheers and cries of ‘It was a push over’. Sherlock would have been proud of him, as were we.
We may not have won anything but we were there to enjoy ourselves and that we did. A great day out and good luck to next year’s team