World Pooh Sticks Championships cancelled due to high river levels on Thames

Organisers say the Thames is too high and fast for them to get safety boats out for annual pooh sticks competition

Organisers of the World Pooh Sticks Championships have announced that this year’s event has been cancelled due to “unsafe” river conditions on the Thames.

The Rotary Club of Oxford said that water levels are too high for its safety boats to be out on the river, but that it would try to hold the event later in the year.

The event, which began in 1984 in memory of an RNLI lock-keeper, was voted quirky event of the year by Country Life in 2012 and often attracts as many as 1000 spectators.

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