Page updated: April 1, 2007

Mouse Racing in The George

March 31st 2007

No, not an April Fool, but the real thing! Live mice, racing in The George Hotel, and all in aid of Carnival Funds. A mighty fun evening too, with all credit going to Roger Bunker who organised things. He told us that he'd spent many sleeplees nights worrying about people not turning up! He needn't have because well over 100 packed the rear dining room and bar to watch, and play the Tote, as randomly selected mice from several tank-fulls were pitted against obstacles ranging from toilet rolls to five bar gates as they traversed a 2 metre course. Six mice raced in each event, although 'raced' is hardly the word as motivation and a sense of direction were frequently lacking in these far from pedigree animals. It brought the crowd to its feet more than once of course, which is at least half the battle. Andrew Varney auctioned the mice in each race to raise even more funds.

Here's a flavour of the evening.

The Tote did a roaring trade for each of the 7 races	The real owners
Two of the 6 lanes of the racing pedestal. Runners started at the right end and ran to (or sometimes didn't, and sometimes even ran away from!) a Finish line on the left, overcoming various obstacles on the way. The final race was a 'flat', which seemed to help the mice!	One of the tanks-full of mice, from which our runners were selected at random. As the evening got warmer, they got more docile and had to be constantly fanned to keep them active. This seemed to make no difference to the ones we backed!
Andrew Varney auctioned off the runners in each race beforehand. The successful bidder won part of the pot if their mouse won or came second.	Yippee, my mouse won!
Some genteel conversation took place at times ...	... while at others, shouting seemed to the only way to make your mouse see reason.
Roger Bunker thanks Landlady Bev for her excellent hospitality, particularly the chilli!