Going flat out for glory in village pancake race

Colette Warbrook

speaks to Lisa Martin about her memories of achieving a very special personal goal

Lisa's mother, Margaret (number 18), fifth from left at the start of a Pancake race on Washerwall Lane in Werrington. Inset, how The Sentinel reported the event last month. Below left, Lisa, and as a pupil at Werrington First School, aged five. Bottom right, Lisa's late cousin Yvonne Jennings when she won the race in the early 1980s.

I T MAY have been a far cry from scooping Olympic gold in the 100 metres sprint, but for women in a Staffordshire village there was only one race worth winning.

This particular contest not only tested the running ability of ladies in Werrington – but also their skills with a pan and pancake.

Patrick Ashton introduced the Shrove Tuesday pancake race to the village when he arrived in the parish as a new curate 50 years ago, and it became an annual event.

It was held along a stretch of Washerwall Lane, with the condition that competitors had to toss their pancakes at least three times along the route.

And among the women who fondly remember lining up for the race is Lisa Martin, of Irvine Road, Werrington.

The 39-year-old says: "My late parents, Paddy and Margaret Martin, owned the off-licence on the lane.

"My mum, along with other ladies in the village, used to run in the race, and my cousin, Yvonne Jennings, who has sadly passed away, also took part and won it in 1980 and 1981.

"But the first time I competed, I came nowhere near winning."

Lisa, a mobile hairdresser and Werrington parish councillor, moved to the village from Bucknall as a child.

"After Patrick Ashton left, Reverend Thake arrived and he organised the race, followed by Reverend John Humphries.

"But after that, John and Cath Summerfield, who bought the off-licence from my parents, did it for a while."

A recent article in All Our Yesterdays told how the ladies cooked their pancakes on the morning of the race and then made their way to the start line.

A small silver cup was presented to the winner, along with a bottle of wine donated by a local shopkeeper, and there were brooches for the runners-up.

Recalling the first time she herself had a go, Lisa, who is single, says: "I was in my twenties and I remember running and tossing my pancake at the same time, but the pancake ended up miles behind me. So that was the end of that, and my friend Alison Wedgwood won that one."

However, Lisa was undeterred by her poor result and vowed to see her name engraved on the sought-after trophy. I was determined to do better next time," she says, "and when I took part in 1996 I ran like mad – and won."

Lisa says it's a shame the race no longer takes place.

"There was a brilliant atmosphere," she adds.