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Mar 2022
Last Updated: 01/03/2022
Knaresborough Bed Race extend entry period due to low numbers
Knaresborough Bed Race can get as many as 140 teams entering each year, but this year it is just 83. Organisers have said they're extending the entry period for the first time in hopes of getting 90 teams signed up.
Hard going up Castle Ings. Photograph: Charlotte Gale Photography
Organisers of Knaresborough Bed Race have extended the entry period after failing to get its usual number of entrants.
The historic event which sees teams take part in a 2.4 mile course through the town in fancy dress, pushing a bed, before finishig with an icy swim through the River Nidd.
Each year more than 90 teams enter the race however this year just 83 teams have signed up to take part.
Bed Race chairman Kevin Lloyd said after two years away, due to covid, the organisers want to make sure this event is better than the last so will keep the entry period open until they get 90 teams:
"We are keeping the doors open on a first-come, first-served basis. But teams should be sharpish as we need only a few to reach the 90 figure.
“We normally have more than 90 teams enter, sometimes as many as 140 or 150, and we hold a lottery to decide on the 90 who can run. This year will be different. We have just over 80 and this gives us the opportunity to keep receiving entries for a few more weeks."
Read more:
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- Knaresborough Museum to open doors for first time in June
As many as 30,000 people line the streets for the event which is due to return on June 11. Since the first in 1966 the tradition has been picked up across the world with similar events being held in USA, Germany and New Zealand.
This year's competitors will have to base their costume and bed design on the theme 'The Environment: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’.
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