Pancake racing is still unsullied by Big Money. Oligarchs are not yet buying up pancake racing teams. Talent spotters are not signing up three-year olds who can flip a nice pancake.
Not yet, but it will come.
After creating rugby with a ball deliberately shaped to bounce inconveniently and cricket with rules that no one understands, Britain has history in successfully exporting unusual sports. Will pancake racing be next? If it wasn’t for the fact that it only happens once a year it would surely already be a major sport with leagues and cups and supporters’ clubs around the world.
The Flaneur sent a crack videographer to cover the finals of the 2014 Great Spitalfields Pancake Race at the Wembley of London Pancake Racing: Dray Walk, near the Old Truman Brewery. The rules are simple. Teams must wear fancy dress. Each race is a relay of four people who must each flip the pancake twice as they race along the road. All participants receive Cath Kidson accessories to brighten their pancake making at home. Simple…
All was set for a pleasant sporting occasion to rival Henley Regatta or the Wimbledon final. However, owing to a Cantona style attack, though without malice, the film was never finished. Above you can see what would have been an exciting report but is now unfortunately a #photographyfail. Our man, you will be pleased to hear is up and about and showing no signs of lasting damage.
All he could glean before being stretchered away* is that Aldgate Tower Construction won and took home the FA cup of pancake racing – the coveted Golden Frying Pan**. So at least he was felled by the winning team. But he never got to taste one of the pancakes.
This event was in aid of the London Air Ambulance.
*Some artistic licence has gone into this part of the tale. He actually walked away as right as rain.
**The frying-pan is neither golden nor especially coveted.
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