The first Canterbury Hop Pocket Race was a great success and 18 teams participated. The Lord Mayor, Cllr Sally Waters was present and undertook to start the race for each of the teams (it is a timed race from the Westgate and Longmarket, some 550 meters) and every team completed the course which proved to be a real test, each team of four carrying their Hop Pocket which weighed 70 kgs each!
The winner of the East Kent Golding Trophy, sponsored by Redsell Hop Farms, was the team from Burgess Hodgson in a time of 2 minutes 16 seconds, second was Canterbury Historic River Tours and third was Strutt & Parker. The Best Dressed award went to Slaters Sprinters, who raced in their suits, and Best Effort went to the team from KMFM who came in last with a time of 4minutes 50 seconds!
BID Operations Manager, Lucy Martin said:
‘The Hop Pocket Race has been great fun to organise, if somewhat challenging at times (how do you fill them for a start?!) but it is definitely a new tradition for Canterbury which we have started this year. We hope our winning team will compete at the World Championships in Bromyard Herefordshire next year and we look forward to doing it all over again next September!’
To find out more about the race of view pictures form the event click here.
