Insurance Worries Cancel Ripon’s Pancake Race

Ripon in North Yorkshire isn’t Rio or New Orleans. For Shrove Tuesday (as Anglophones know Mardi Gras), the folks up there tend to keep their clothes on and the drinking remains at normal levels. They do, however, have a team of choristers and clergy take on the businessmen and women in a pancake race. Or rather, they did. This year, the 600-year-old event was cancelled due to insurance risks.

To the uninitiated, Wikipedia has this to say about pancake races, “One popular event is a ‘pancake race’ in which each participant carries a pancake in a frying pan. All runners must toss their pancakes as they run and catch them in the frying pan. This event is said to have originated in the town of Olney, England in 1444 when a housewife was still busy frying pancakes to eat before the Lenten fast when she heard the bells of St Peter and St Paul's Church calling her to the Shriving Service. Eager to get to church, she ran out of her house still holding the frying pan complete with pancake, and still wearing her apron and headscarf.” It’s a bit of fun, as they say in that part of the world.

The Very Rev Keith Jukes, Dean of Ripon and co-organizer of the event who helped revive the tradition in 1998 (it’s died out a couple of other times but has been in place for 10 years now), said: “Sadly, the big reason it won’t take place this year is health and safety. We have to go through a number of risk assessments. The insurance companies demand it.”

His partner in fun, co-organizer Bernard Bateman explained further, “The main issue is the cobbled street, that people could slip on. This stupidity never happened previously. It’s a shame these issues stop the children enjoying such a traditional event. The policing costs are just as bad. The police wanted in excess of £1,200, which is just ridiculous.” Isn't the street cobbled year-round? Who insures it when there is no race? And the police want more money to do their jobs?

So another harmless tradition is lost. Oh, there are other pancake races, most notably the one at the Palace of Westminster to benefit the Rehab UK charity. But to the kids up in Ripon, it’s just another Tuesday. Thanks to the insurance companies, the lawyers, and the lottery mentality that is creeping into British courtrooms these days – one American import the nation could have done without.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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