BS: Pooh Sticks

Subject: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Raedwulf
Date: 29 Mar 04 - 04:59 PM

"The English, the English, the English are..." Well I dunno about "best". Now we can't even win at Pooh Sticks! The team gold went a Czech side! See here for more.

But the most wonderful part of the story, I thought, was this bit:

"The event has been held in Oxfordshire ever since a local lock-keeper noticed people were picking sticks off a hedge and playing the traditional game.

He began charging them in order to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute."

How terribly, terribly English! We may not be the best (just different (just like everyone else, then)!), but it's that sort of daft, disinterested idea that, I think, is some of the best of the English!

Hooray for us! Even if we did lose... ;)

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: GUEST,earthling
Date: 29 Mar 04 - 05:07 PM

I liked the fact a 55 yr old won the individual gold, and a 14 mth old came second.

A mystery guest spot for THEY THINK IT'S ALL OVER beckons.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Phot
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 12:51 AM

What a wonderful tonic in todays high speed world of computer games, PS2, Nintendo etc, give me the simple life anyday!

Wassail!

Chris

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 03:22 AM

What about portability though? You can stick a gameboy in your pocket (ooh-er missus). It's a bugger trying to fit a stream and bridge in your briefcase!
I'll get my quoit, then!
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 04:02 AM

Yo Geoff, you can always find a stream and a bridge, there is even one just outside Bradford. being a lifelong fisherman we all are obsessively drawn to looking over bridges, we can always find one. eric

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 04:15 AM

If you like Pooh Sticks then you should like Puff-a-Box.

The Glen Farg folk Feast on 16/17/18 April host the World Puff-a-Box Championships.

Watch this space I will post results.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 05:18 AM

I've got a pooh-stick that I use when my drains get blocked. :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: el ted
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 05:50 AM

Why not play pooh sticks with gameboys geoff?

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Gurney
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 06:05 AM

Eric, on the evidence of the song, you wouldn't be able to see the stick for dirty snow...
"I've seen snow float down Bradford Beck, as black as ebony..."

Not a lifelong angler myself. Didn't start 'till I was seven, and haven't stopped yet. (grin)

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 06:34 AM

Actually - Bradford beck disappears underground at one side of the City centre and reappears about a mile later, somewhere down the valley.
Now THAT is what I call a game. Drop in your stick, then run to the other side of town and try to guess when (or IF) it will come out!
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 06:47 AM

Gurney - it was the snow in Bradford which used to be black, due to the smoke and soot produced by the mills and millworkers fires.
A similar reference is used in one of Keith Marsden's songs, where there is a line about making black men out of snow.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 07:21 AM

Sorry mis-read your posting. Anyway it only snows in Bradford during the Winter or Cricket Season!
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Schantieman
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 07:51 AM

If the snowmen are black (or is some moron going to tell me that I ought to call them minimally reflective?), what do you use for eyes?

So, there are two snowmen standing in the garden, and one says to the other, "Can you smell carrots?"

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 08:02 AM

I've played Pooh Sticks on the original bridge in the real 100 Acre Wood!

I won.

Apparently so many people play it there that there is a bloke whose job it is to go under the bridge and remove the gathered debris, just so they have a clear shot!

The knack is watching carefully where the strongest current is, it isn't always under the centre span!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 08:07 AM

we used to play something similar - probably inspired by the Pooh story because it was extremly popular in our house - though we didn't call it pooh sticks.

The favorite spots were both where our local tidal creek crossed beneath roads - though the boardwalk bridge down near Old Harbour was popular as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 08:15 AM

Could be a long game Geoff, a mile under the bridge.
eric

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 08:28 AM

This brings to mind another like event - the Memorial Day Wreath Run (non competative)- on Memorial Day commemorative wreaths of flowers were dropped in the mill pond - we used to track them until they hit Old Harbour at the mouth of the creek. Three road underpasses, a railroad bridge and several miles of salt marsh to navigate in addition to a half mile stretch of creek.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 09:22 AM

I've tried and tried, but everytime I throw him against the wall, Pooh either bounces off or slides down. He's getting awfully beaten up. How do I get him to stick?

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 09:26 AM

Did you dip him in hunny first? that, and a short period of air drying to make the hunny tacky are the secret.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 09:30 AM

Are you using the correct variety of Pooh?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 12:36 PM

Good comeback, LTS!

It's odd how these things happen. Just this week I told my husband that betting on horses races made about as much sense as betting on Pooh sticks. He gave me a questioning look, but remembered about Pooh sticks once I began explaining.

This coincidence has got to be cosmic.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 07:14 PM

So far, drug testing has not been needed for Pooh sticks, although I do believe the Russians wanted to check for Royal Jelly abuse.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: GUEST,earthling
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 08:39 PM

I reckon Tigger's on speed.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Cluin
Date: 30 Mar 04 - 10:03 PM

Yes, pooh sticks.
While it is still moist, that is.

Next observation...

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Mar 04 - 04:29 AM

poo stinks.
eric

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Mar 04 - 10:40 AM

I haven't seen many Pooh stick racers in my area. Most of our water just "lays there," although I suppose a wind-powered stick might work well here.

There is, however, the long-standing tradition of the Olney vs Liberal International Pancake Race, or if you prefer, the Liberal vs Olney Interntational Pancake Race.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Avril Betts
Date: 31 Mar 04 - 11:13 AM

Liz that's down in the Ashdown Forest - isn't it ?

Perhaps we could drop McFat and Raggy into Bradford Beck and see who appears on the other side first - on the other hand - Who Cares if they don't.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 Mar 04 - 06:30 PM

Hey Avril -- good thinking.... extra points if they are face down? : )

LTS (Joking McFat & Raggy!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 31 Mar 04 - 06:32 PM

So these are not the things they give you when you have to provide a stool sample?

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Gurney
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 03:21 AM

Best place to play Pooh Sticks? The Todd River in Alice!
The game can last quite a while, like nine months.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: GUEST,Cats
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 05:26 AM

The original Pooh Sticks bridge was on Ashdown Forest but was removed to Esat Court in East Grinstead as it was falling apart in the 1970's or it may have just been the 80's. The Pooh Sticks bridge is an exact copy replacement so we can all still enjoy the childhood that is Pooh Bear. A council with forethought or a sensible streak!?

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 08:00 AM

Play accousticks... chuck a banjo in the river and watch it float down stream from the other side of the bridge!

Arrrrgh! (duck)

#8-)

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 08:12 AM

As for throwing McDonald and Raggytash in any river - you'll find that MC Fat comes out.
Quack!!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 11:06 AM

I've passed up this thread until now, figuring this was simply another way of saying "Shit Happens" or something regarding the observation about when "The Shit Hits the Fan." I underestimated the originator of the post (though I see a few others had similar responses).

I happen to have a creek and a bridge in my back yard--but we hadn't thought of playing this game. It has been a long time since I read those books to the kids, so we forgot about it by the time we moved here. I should haul them out and give it a try. The article doesn't say--which book has the stick race in it?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 12:54 PM

Pictures of the Poohsticks bridge in Ashdown Forest Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 01:33 PM

Sorry--a profundity of pronouns in my last post. I'll pull out the books and look for the description if someone can tell me which book to look in.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: The Shambles
Date: 02 Apr 04 - 09:23 AM

The UK will be bound to win the bid to hold the Olympics, if they introduce Pooh Sticks as the new Olympic sport.

Quick someone tell the US lady who is leading the bid.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: LadyJean
Date: 03 Apr 04 - 01:29 AM

I'm tickled there's a Pooh Sticks championship. My sister and I were taken, once a year, to visit an elderly great aunt and uncle in Ligonier. They had a house near a stream, and while mom and dad sat and talked about whatever with Uncle Wallace and Aunt Anne, my sister and I played Pooh Sticks in the stream.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: Amos
Date: 03 Apr 04 - 10:02 AM

Me da always said, "Pooh sticks where you fling it!"

A

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: GUEST,M'Grath of Altcar
Date: 04 Apr 04 - 03:48 AM

Me and my freind Blind Lemon Mud Slider O'Reilly used to play a variation of pooh sticks with rediculously complex rules that involved a handicapping system if you your stick got stuck in an eddy. It extended the game for miles! A kind of pooh sticks marathon. And it gave us an excuse to follow streams for mile after mile across the south west lancashire plain.

Subject: RE: BS: Pooh Sticks
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 08:05 AM

Results of the world puff A Box Championships .I failed mserably.

Alistair Brown from Shetland was second (best placing in 18 years of competing)
His Wife Aileen won the womens event.

The winner was Big C.