Making a splash – clergy join forces for the Knaresborough Bed Race

BBC's Songs of Praise to feature local church school victors

Thousand lined the streets of Knaresborough last weekend to watch the new traditional  Knaresborough Bed Race which this year will feature on a special edition of BBC1’s Songs of Praise.

Ninety teams took part in this year's race which has two elements - the race itself, and the parade of the fully decorated beds through the town after judging in the Castle grounds.

Songs of Praise presenter, Aled Jones, who was due to run with the Churches Together team, unfortunately suffered a Rio Ferdinand style knee injury and alas, Aled didn’t run.

But it was victory for St John’s Church of England Primary School who won first prize for their tea party themed bed, against a strongly competative field for the best dressed bed. And both church teams put up brave and creditable performances when the beds were stripped down to racing machines and the dash through the town got underway.   

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP, Andrew Jones fired the starting pistol as the teams got underway at 10 second intervals, climbing up through town and then dropping down to the River Nidd for the final and difficult crossing. Each bed was pushed by a team of six with a ‘patient’ on board, and had to be able to float across the swollen river.

Frogmen and women were on duty across the final watery stretch of the course.

Pre-race questions about whether the Churches Together team would walk on water proved unfounded.

Curate of St John’s Knaresborough, Revd Darryl Hall, was one of the team and said he was delighted to have completed the course.

“It was a tough run" he daid, "but we managed it remarkably well. We overtook at least three beds and one of those was on Castle Ings (the really steep hill). People were spraying water at us from hose pipes, thank you that was so welcomed. The river crossing was fantastic, so cold but just what we needed to refresh us.”

The full church team consisted of  Darryl, the Rev'd Bob Jones (URC), Graham Barnes (URC), Dave Godfrey( non-denominational) , Owen Lacey, Rev'd Gail Hunt (minister of Gracious Street Methodist Church and the passenger) and Lee Welsby, a local scout leader,  who replaced Aled Jones for the day.