More than 130 intrepid pancake racers of all ages and abilities braved the cold wind and took to Castle Street at midday on Shrove Tuesday March 1st to try to win one of the coveted Hinckley BID Pancake-Race Trophies.

Following in the footsteps of when the first pancake race started 577 years ago in Olney, Bucks – our racers ran up the hill in small groups and stopped every 10 metres to flip their pancake, before running to the next of 3 flipping points - several had dressed especially for the occasion including Wonder Woman and Matty the Mattress.

Councillor Ted Hollick presented the Trophies to the worthy winners and every entrant was awarded a specially crafted commemorative medal.

This year we awarded two ‘Best Dressed Pancake Flipper’ trophies, these went to Mr Sefton Winslade, the Pastoral Support Officer at Westfield Junior School who dressed up as Wonder Woman and ‘Matty The Mattress’ from Vogue Beds Group. The ‘Excellent Effort’ awards went to Mark Richards from Hinckley Adult Learners and ‘Princess Elsa’. The ‘Junior Race Runner-up’ was Zane, Age 10 from Westfield Junior School and the overall ‘Junior Race Winner’ was Jack, Age 11 who ran from St Mary’s Primary School. The Senior Race Runner-up was Tom Bright from Fosse 107 whilst the overall Senior Race Winner was Michael Cornish from Armstrongs Lester & Co - who fought off fierce competition from Runner-up Tom.

Described by several of the large crowd (including a number of visitors to Leicester City from Hing Kong) who had gathered to watch as a ‘very enjoyable free community event’, the next free to watch large events organised by Hinckley BID are the Soap Box Derby to be held on Castle St on Sunday June 26th and the Classic Motor Show to be held in Hinckley Town Centre on Sunday September 18th. Details of all the Hinckley BID Events are shown on www.hinckleybid.co.uk

To see video footage of our Pancake Race in action, click here!

To join in, please look at www.hinckleybid.co.uk or call 01455 698494.