R U Flippin MAD?

Well today is Shrove Tuesday and High Wycombe has marked this for the last five years with a Pancake relay race up and down the High Street.

This year All Saints' church returned to form with a team of myself and two cassocks inhabited by Hazel our verger and Dave our Vicar.

The race is in aid of Shopmobility which is a local charity that provides, free of charge, powered wheelchairs and buggies for those who have difficulty walking around the shops in High Wycombe. This is a really simple idea that makes an all important big difference to people.

There were 12 teams including ours and four heats of three teams at a time in the first round.

We were due to be in the third race against a team from Biffa and a team from ... oh dear... The Wycombe Leisure centre.

Our teams tactics about flipping tactics and the pancake exchange were beginning to seem irrelevant as we line up against these young people in tracksuits!

However, thanks the encouragement from our wonderful supporters, we stormed through to a comprehensove first place in our first heat!

In our second heat we were up against a second team from Biffa. This was a close run race all the way through and our second runner closed the gap and then Dave powered through to a photo finish!

Because it was so close, Dave and I ran in a tie-breaker mini race. I was pleased to see that the tall long-legged guy racing against me really had to get his head down to get a little bit ahead of me and my "litte legs going like crazy" (as Hazel said!!!) and we handed over pretty much even but with them slightly ahead. Then Dave was up against an extremely sprightly looking young chap who just stormed off. They were pretty close but Dave said he knew the guy was ahead of him so he graciously eased off.

This speedy team went on to win the final so we felt pretty justified in coming a close second to them in the semi final!

Well after all that I'm not sure I can really face EATING some pancakes at our Shrove Tuesday party! Hazel was requesting the karaoke machine...

It could be an INTERESTING evening!!