PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS SADLY BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO POOR WEATHER – THE LAMBING EVENT AT THE EARTH TRUST WILL STILL BE GOING AHEAD.
When: 24th March 2013 from 11am
Where: Day’s Lock on the River Thames, near Wittenham Clumps, Oxfordshire
£: 2 to enter, 12 for teams (teams must enter via the website before the event)
What is it?
The 30th annual championships takes place this March near Little Wittenham in Oxfordshire. Pooh sticks is a game you may remember playing when you were a child and was invented by Winnie the Pooh author A. A. Milne. Milne created the game for his son Christopher and it featured in his book The House at Pooh Corner.
The World Pooh Sticks Championships started when a lock keeper noticed walkers recreating Pooh’s pastime on the River Thames. He hit on the idea that this would be an excellent way of raising money for his favourite charity, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
If you wish to take part in this year’s event then you will need to head to the registration tent at 11am on the morning. The individual games start at 11.30am and will go on until around 2pm. The team games will start around 1.30pm. Those taking part will receive a goody bag once they have registered (which rather fittingly will contain some honey amongst other things).
Rules for playing Pooh Sticks are fairly straight forward so even if you can’t make it to the event you can still play. First you must select a stick and show it to your fellow competitors. Check which way the stream is flowing and stand on the side of the bridge. Each competitor holds their stick at arms length over the stream and the starter shouts ready, steady, go! Competitors should then go to the other side of the bridge to watch whose stick appears first.
At the championships there will be plenty of other entertainment in addition to the Pooh Sticks. This will include a bouncy castle, hook a duck and face painting. There will also be refreshments including tea and cake, burgers, and fudge.
Other activities happening in the local area may also be of interest if you are hoping to make a day of it. The nearby Earth Trust will be holding one of its Lambing Days from 10am to 4pm. Free Nordic Walking taster sessions are also being held at 11.30am and 12.30pm. To book a place on one of these sessions phone 01491 823175.
Money raised from the World Pooh Sticks Championships will go to local charities and other good causes.
More info: www.pooh-sticks.com
We are very sorry to announce that we have to cancel this Sunday’s World Pooh Sticks Championships.
If we had just had a little rain on the day then we would have still played and we would have splashed around in wellington boots and dropped our coloured sticks over the bridges, however we’ve had so much rain over the last few weeks that the river is still too high and fast to have our safety boats on the river and there’s no sign of the rain stopping this weekend.