Editor’s Pick of the Week: Escaped snakes in Knaresborough

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Imagine 30,000 people crammed into Knaresborough for the town’s annual bed race at a time when several escaped snakes were on the loose. It emerged this week that there actually were snakes at large during last weekend’s bed race, although fortunately most people were unaware at the time.

Dan Holmes of Knaresborough Exotic Rescue contacted the Stray Ferret to alert us to the roving reptiles, and ask us to put out an appeal.

After we did so, Dan got in touch the following day saying one of the escapees — a milk snake — had been recovered.

Picture the scenes at Conyngham Hall if one of the snakes had made an appearance during the race, which was won again by the unstoppable GH Brooks team. 

Knaresborough also made the news this week for having a finalist in the Great British Pub Awards.

You might think the chances of bumping into a dozen or so leading strong men and women in Boroughbridge were about as great as seeing a snake on the street in Knaresborough.

But again, it did actually happen. Contenders for next month’s Britain’s Strongest Woman and England’s Strongest Man, which are being held on the same weekend at York Barbican, were limbering up for the competition at Darren Sadler’s Absolute Fitness gym.

Darren is no ordinary gym owner. The four-time World’s Strongest Man competitor runs Giants Live, the company behind nearly all the big strongman and strongwoman contests on the planet, so it’s not unusual to bump into strength legends like Eddie Hall, Bill Kazmaier and Harrogate’s own Luke Richardson in the Roman town.

Somebody who was never associated with North Yorkshire, as far as I know, was comedian Tommy Cooper. So how the robe he died in during his final performance ended up being auctioned here was, like some of his tricks, a bit of a mystery. It is expected to fetch between £4,000 and £6,000 when it goes under the hammer at Tennants of Leyburn.

Finally, full marks to Dacre Banks woman Rachel Peru. Rachel is a 55-year-old model who organised a photoshoot for women on Scarborough beach yesterday (June 19) to promote self-acceptance and support for women of all shapes and sizes.

They could hardly have chosen a better day for it weather-wise. As someone of a similar vintage, all power to them, and I hope they enjoyed an ice cream in the Harbour Bar afterwards.