Wirral Grammar School

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Cross Lane, Bebington,
Wirral. CH63 3AQ
Tel: 0151 6440908

School News & Features

Snow White and 7 Dwarves in Raft Race Thriller!

Posted on: 05.07.2010

The River Dee was the scene of much splashing, sabotage, laughter and general pandemonium on Sunday 4th July as a team of 8 staff took part in the annual Chester Rotary Club Raft Race in aid of the Help for Heroes charity.

Thirty seven rafts battled it out over the course from the Boat House Inn downriver and over the weir to the finishing line, each raft being themed to reflect something of historical significance (and who could forget the significance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, our chosen theme!)

So Snow White (Mrs Ward), Sleepy (Mr Woodham), Doc (Mr McKinney), Bashful (Mr Boustead), Grumpy (Mr Davies), Sneezy (Mr Atkinson), Happy (Miss Clements) and our skipper Dopey (Mrs Jones) entered the murky waters of the Dee in our state-of-the-art raft, The HMS In-DEE-pendence, which had been designed and built by some of the crew just the day before, for our first taste of competitive rafting!

Things didn't start too well as we had to remind Mr Atkinson (Sneezy) that it was the big end of the paddle that needed to be in the water! However once we had our balance right, Mr Woodham (Sleepy) assumed the role of 'stroke' and we set off belting out the first line to the classic....'Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it's off to work we go...' (embarrassingly this was the only line any of us could remember!)

As we approached the start line just behind a NASA themed raft and alongside one that looked like it had been made during an episode of 'Blue Peter', confidence was high, mostly due to the fact that Snow White had somehow managed to stay dry and touch up her make-up in the 100 metres leading up to the start! So, the klaxon sounded and off we shot like an exocet missile homing in on its target, and soon we had left the NASA team in our wake! Sneezy found his rhythm (slow!), Doc controlled the steering, Sleepy maintained the chant with his own version of the All Blacks 'Haka' and Grumpy lived up to his name by constantly berating the efforts of the crew to his left!

As we began to tire the team started to worry as it became evident that ahead lay sabotage vessels armed with foul-smelling ammunition! Not only this, morale hit an all time low when we were overtaken by a raft travelling at warp factor 10 crewed by Big Bird and his mates!.........we needed inspiration!  

As we approached the suspension bridge the inspiration we craved appeared as we caught sight of Mr Hazeldine, our Headteacher, offering his support from above. However, the moment was short lived as Sneezy's barrel loosened sending him crashing into the Dee! Mayhem ensued as we lost Grumpy to a stray water bomb swiftly followed by Bashful's fall from grace into the abyss!

Spurred on by our band of (now hysterical) supporters, we didn't give up! Propelled by 5 paddles, three swimmers and a duracell powered Mr Woodham the team displayed the Wirral Grammar determination to succeed as we headed for the finishing line dodging stink bombs, raft debris and the occasional duckling!

Finally the weir came into view, and a respectable time of 32 minutes and 27 seconds saw the WGSB team achieve a creditable 28th place, despite losing 3 barrels, several pieces of rope and, in Snow White's case, some lip gloss and an acrylic nail or two!

Would we do it all again next year? Just watch this space!

Bashful (Community Learning Dwarf)