Bonsall hen races 2007

HEN RACING, HEN racing, I hear you say??? Yes - it's an old Derbyshire tradition, in the same vein as Toe wrestling ( http://www.feetforlife.org/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=695&d=11&h=24&f=23 )

It was all the idea to re-introduce it to Bonsall by one of the locals, Jeff Punchard. He gave the idea to Alan, the landlord of the Barley Mow, and since then, it's flourished. there are other hen races locally, notably at a village called Ible.

This is where it all takes place, on the car park of the Barley Mow (the white building).

This is a grainy picture of Jeff, taken at night, with a mobile phone camera, sorry I don't have a better one of him. He's a damn good whistle player too, and is the life and soul of the sessions on Friday nights.

Here's Alan, the landlord of the Barley Mow. And here's the famous tee shirt .

These are two of the younger competitors, or should I call them 'entrants'?

This was the finest hat I've seen in a long time, and do you know, they didn't eve mention it on the PA system. I thought it was really good, so I give it pride of place on my blog.

Here's Alan again, showing his hen the arena, and showing US, the audience, what a fine figure it was.

Here he is again, marking out the finish line while his hen looks on.

Let the dog see the rabbit (or, in this case, the public see the hen).

If it was duck racing, I'd say he was a quack!

(Useless fact - did you know, a ducks quack has NO echo, and no-one knows why!).

The all-important rules of the races.

Heat one finally gets off - after Alan has sold enough beer!

THEY'RE OFF!!!!!

Oh, ohhhh - this looks like trouble!

Sure enough, a fracas ensued. As 'hen-pecking' is against the rules (see board), both these hens were disqualified.

She doesn't look too keen, does she?

(And it was HER hen).

This one went to the line - then promptly turned around and walked AWAY from it??

CONCENTRATE!

"HEEEERE, CHUCK, CHUCK, CHUCK........"

Heat 2 well under way. (But can you see the stuffed fox being used???)

A SERIOUS business, this hen racing.

This character appeared in the arena, the costume didn't help him win though!

And that was it - the hen races were over for another year.