Great Knaresborough Bed Race

The small market town of Knaresborough was brought to a complete standstill on Saturday for the running of the 42nd ‘Great Knaresborough Bed Race’. Thousands of people flocked to the picturesque town in North Yorkshire to witness this well loved event.

Before the race, the 62 teams competing this year, paraded their imaginatively constructed beds through the streets, cheered on by lines of spectators, in the hope of winning the best dressed title. To my bemusement, the beds were then stripped to their bare metal frame, filling skip after skip of cardboard which had been lovingly crafted into different forms of transport (as was the theme for this year). How disappointing not to have Doctor Who’s tardis take on Fred Flinstone’s cave-mobile in all their glory!

The race, a ‘time trial’, began at 3pm around an arduous course taking in the waterside, a steep climb through the market place to the town centre, followed by the run back down to the river, and to the last, most entertaining stage of the course, crossing the River Nidd. Congratulations to The Ripon Runners Boys who completed the course in 14mins, 15 secs to take the trophy.