We take part in the annual Ponteland New Year’s Day wheelbarrow race.
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00:00The annual Ponteley New Year's Day wheelbarrow race, and it's been held since, well actually it goes back to the 14th century, so it goes back a long way, but certainly in its current guise it goes back to about the 1960s, and every New Year's Day come hail, sunshine, whatever, snow, it's staged.
00:19What am I doing?
00:26I started doing it about eight years ago, and we first came down for a bet it was originally, but year on year we've done it, the crowds seem to get bigger and bigger, and it's just a really enjoyable event.
00:36It's the best way to start the year without doing it, absolutely.
00:39There's probably going to be, I would guess, somewhere in the region about 3,000 people who are going to be actually watching, and they cheer everybody on, you know, and lots of people are in fancy dress, and basically they will enjoy it, they will enjoy the buzz of actually being involved in such a great community event.
00:58Not too bad.
01:01We're doing alright, it's going well.
01:05So how much training goes into being a winner of this, because I've heard rumours you two train a little bit for this?
01:10No, no, not for this event, just train for running in general, you know, everybody runs with a wheelbarrow in their spare time.
01:16James, I don't believe it.
01:18I'm a farmer with a wheelbarrow, what I put in that wheelbarrow, if it happens to be another person, for a couple of half an hour sessions, then that's the way it goes.
01:30Two major charities actually gain from this, two local hospices, St Oswald's Hospice and Tyndale Hospice at home, and basically they will recoup something like about £2,000 each.
01:43It is a charity really, and now they've started with the Barnability, you know, the kids with all the special needs kids coming down, I mean, they're absolutely loving it and they're competing in something that is so big and they would never really get the chance.
01:57Absolutely love it, so that's another part to it, it's absolutely brilliant.