The Information Technologists' Company

Inter-Livery Pancake Race

Arranged by the Poulters, the 6th Inter-Livery Pancake Race took place on Shrove Tuesday, 16 February, in Guildhall Yard.

This was the first year that the ITC had entered a team. The team consisted of: The Master – Charles Hughes; A Lady – Deputy Master Jo Connell; A Liveryman – Jolyon Parsons and a Novelty Race entrant – Freeman John Duggan. All funds raised went to the Lord Mayor’s Appeal – the London Symphony Orchestra and the Cricket Foundation. These were represented in Novelty Race with each entrant required to wear cricket pads and a hat with a musical theme. John Duggan teamed IT with music and wore a hat with a speaker connected to an MP3 player.

Each team needed to contribute to the overall race, for example the Musicians sang the ‘Pancake Anthem’, the Ironmongers provided the frying pans and the Gunmakers the starting pistol. The ITC contributed a video, arranged by Mike Lyons.

With the pouring rain making the historic stones of the Guildhall Yard treacherous, the team acquitted themselves extremely well and brought credit on the Company. The team came through each heat without any penalties for incorrect pancake tossing and both the Master and the Lady went through to the semi-finals. Some nifty sprinting and professional pancake tossing saw The Master come secnd in the final – an excellent result, well done to everyone!

The racing over, the team repaired to Guildhall for lunch with all the other teams, which gave a chance to mingle and discuss tactics for next year.

The photo shows John Duggan; the Deputy Master Jo Connell; the Master, Charles Hughes; and Clerk Designate Mike Jenkins, who acted as Team Leader.