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Photograph: Nick Williams<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> to Newhaven Raft Race<br />
Start preparing your edible armoury<br />
A little bit of the anarchic spirit which so characterises<br />
Bonfire Night comes to the fore every<br />
summer during the annual <strong>Lewes</strong>-Newhaven<br />
raft race, one of the absolute highlights of our<br />
town’s annual social calendar.<br />
For the uninitiated, the annual event, organised<br />
by the <strong>Lewes</strong> Round Table, constitutes a race<br />
from <strong>Lewes</strong> Marina (more or less opposite the<br />
Snowdrop) to Newhaven between teams of between<br />
three and twelve men and women who<br />
have built their own rafts according to strict<br />
specifications, usually out of plastic barrels,<br />
planks and pieces of scaffolding.<br />
So far so humdrum. The real fun starts just<br />
before the race begins, when competitors attack<br />
one another with eggs and other sundry<br />
foodstuffs, as they prepare to embark on their<br />
journey, trying to demoralise their opponents<br />
before they set off. “The joy of a direct hit is<br />
unbridled,” says Gavin Burke, of the Ousing<br />
Flankers, which entered the race for the first<br />
time last year.<br />
But the unmissable mayhem takes place around<br />
Southease Bridge, where hundreds of specta-<br />
tors make a day of it, preparing themselves with<br />
a vast armoury of edible ammunition, and lying<br />
in wait for their prey. “I was pretty terrified of<br />
going under the bridge before the race, from<br />
what everybody had said about it,” says Gavin.<br />
“The reality of the bombardment was much<br />
worse than I could have imagined. It was like<br />
going into a war zone. We were absolutely pulverised<br />
with everything from eggs and flour to<br />
a disgusting mixture which seemed to be made<br />
from Harveys, vomit and spaghetti.”<br />
“From then on, it’s a bit of an anticlimax, as<br />
you continue onto Newhaven, though there<br />
is the odd sniper lying in wait,” he concludes.<br />
“It hurts a lot when you are hit by an egg fired<br />
from a two-man catapult. You arrive home<br />
looking like cake mixture. It’s either to be thoroughly<br />
recommended, or it’s not. If I go in for it<br />
again I will think long and hard about devising<br />
efficient on-board retaliation strategies. And<br />
defence strategies, too. Umbrellas and dustbin<br />
lids are an absolute must.” V<br />
Alex Leith<br />
sunday 29th July, 12 noon start<br />
W W W. V i V a l E W E S . C o M<br />
r a f t r a C E<br />
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