Law banning alcohol being drunk at speed means four-legged racers must go teetotal

Competitors at the four-legged and wheelbarrow races at Pewsey Carnival in Wiltshire will have to go teetotal this year to comply with licensing laws. The new rules mean that anyone who wants to race in the events competitively will have to drink non-alcoholic drinks at each of the stops in line with the 2003 Licensing Act which prevents any alcohol being drunk at speed.

Five minutes after the start of both races there will be a second event for entrants who want to drink alcoholic drinks and make their way around the stops at a leisurely pace. Sergeant Vince Louge said: “Both events in the last few years have been extremely well run and there have been little, if any, problems. The new rules are there simply to comply with new licensing laws and obviously we support that and the organisers have been very flexible in accommodating the changes.”



Carnival fortnight kicks off this weekend and the four-legged race, formerly known as the wine race, is the first of the three main events. Wine race organiser David Major said: “It’s been a bit of a nightmare but we’ll just have to see how things go. The changes have been coming in slowly of a period of years and we’ve just had to make this change to comply with the law. We won’t know how it will affect entries until the day, but people have been talking about it, so hopefully everyone will still get into the spirit of things.”

The race sees teams of three dashing around the village in fancy dress, tied together at the ankle stopping at the football club, Coopers, Moonrakers, Daisy’s Kitchen, Thomsons and the Royal Oak. The following Thursday for the wheelbarrow race, there will also be two different competitions, a fast and a slow-paced version. Jerry Kunkler Wiltshire Councillor and landlord of Moonrakers in Pewsey, said: “It’s a bit of a strange one, but it’s all to do with health and safety which I don’t always agree with. We live in a nanny state and it’s the minority that the rules are in place for and the majority are the ones that have to pay. The Wheelbarrow race has been going for 33 years and we’ve only had one person fall out of a wheelbarrow which isn’t bad going.”