The spectacle of 60 groups of three fancy dress runners with their legs tied at the ankle drew a huge crowd to the centre of Pewsey last night for the annual Carnival Wine Race.

The wine race and the Wheelbeero race which takes place next Thursday, have become almost mini-carnivals in themselves.

Going by previous years’ support there will probably be about 200 decorated wheelbarrows in next week’s event and an even bigger crowd in the village’s Market Place.

Last night’s wine race saw one of the biggest entries ever to the delight of organiser Dave Major who said: “Once again the support has been absolutely brilliant and it is good to see so many entries and also such a large crowd turn out to watch.”

The entries varied from the topical to the tropical and where else in Wiltshire on an early autumn Thursday evening could you see bush tucker men rubbing shoulders with fairies, cowboys and red Indians, air hostesses, human toadstools; three people wearing giant baseball boots, Arabs, highwaymen and women, toy soldiers, pirates and nuns.

Together they created a colourful spectacle under the floodlights in the village centre before they got down to the serious business of racing.

Each team of three had to pay £15 and there were marshalls to ensure they all had their legs tied together. Smiles were raised in the crowd when they noticed that thre local women running as the Hot Flushes had their ankles tied with knickers!

The teams had to race around the village, including a trip through the knee-deep River Avon, calling at six pubs and clubs where each team had to drink a half pint of wine.

The winning team of three women calling themselves Totally OTT (Kinga Tarnai, Elspeth Barley and Hellena Trigg) finished in 9minutes 52 seconds followed by the Super Heroes (Bob Street, Rob Lister and Mark Anderson) in 11minutes 14 seconds, and in third place were Carry On Nurses( Caroline Worsdell, Tina Watson and Julie Winter) in 11 minutes 25 seconds.

The best fancy dress award went to Puss in Boots (Judy Britten, Libby Tuxford and Tim Brookes).

Next Thursday’s Wheelbeero Race starts at 8pm with teams registering from 6.30pm.