Page 20 - Cadet Review Autumn 2023

CEY Wing ATC KNARESBOROUGH
BED RACING
By Flight Lieutenant Chris Crebbin
It's the second Saturday in June. What are you doing with cadets? Perhaps some adventurous training, maybe shooting, or gliding, or running a stall at your local community fayre. In Knaresborough, we go racing beds. Yes, beds.
When the event started in 1966 it was actual hospital beds. The town had just set up our local Round Table, and were looking for ideas for an event to do some fund raising. They settled on a time trial format race, pushing beds (with terrified passenger) around the town. The route has been tweaked a bit over the years, now cutting out the steep cobbled hill, and hard stone wall protected only by a couple of hay bales settling on the current 2.4 mile route. It has inspired similar events around the country in addition to America, Germany and New Zealand. Pre-Covid, we always had two teams (one men's, one women's) from our twin town of Bebra in Germany. These days the contraptions that get pushed around bear little resemblance to hospital beds any more, but the sentiment - and terrified passenger - remains.
If you don't know Knaresborough, you might not appreciate how hilly the place is. From the bottom of the course running along the river side, to the top going through the market place is a difference of about 40 metres. They do most of this climb in just a relatively short 400 metre stretch of the course. One of the interesting things you'll notice about the route map is that it crosses the bridge and ends up on the wrong side of the river. The route is then completed with a 30 metre swim across the River Nidd, before pushing the bed up the banking to the finish line, just yards away from where they started.
For the six weeks or so before the event, it is a common sight to see these contraptions being
...everybody collectively accepts this utterly crazy event
pushed around the town as teams train and practice the route. There is no resentment from drivers getting held up behind beds, and the only car horns you hear are accompanied by cheers and applause. This is normal for Knaresborough, as everybody collectively accepts this utterly crazy event as just part of what we do here.
The day starts nice and early at 0700 when a party of cadets (assisted by a contingent from neighbouring Harrogate squadron because we're only a small unit) sets up the staging area in the grounds of Knaresborough Castle. With just about enough time to plot out all the flags marking each
20 CADET REVIEW AUTUMN 2023