Pictures from the Olney Pancake Race 2012

Race winner Devon Byrne

1 of 9

A record crowd filled the streets of Olney yesterday to take part in the town’s annual Shrove Tuesday festivities.

Tracing its roots back to 1445, this year 22 runners took part in the 415-yard, women-only pancake race, as more than 1,000 people cheered them on.

Earlier in the day, children from all three town schools took part in races of their own.

And this year saw the first ever ‘100 Pancake Dash’ as celebrity chef Lesley Waters, from programmes such as Ready, Steady, Cook, took on James Lomax, chef of The Bull pub, to see who could flip 100 pancakes the fastest.

She said: “This day is really great fun.

“With everything that’s going on in the world today, there’s just something so fantastic about it - it’s lovely.”

To add to the day's celebrations, Olney residents also last night found out they had won the international competition.

Since 1950 Olney and Liberal in Kansas, USA, have been holding parallel races, with the overall winner getting trans-Atlantic bragging rights.

Winner Devon Byrne’s record time of 58.5 seconds retook the title after around ten years of hurt, beating the winner in Liberal by ten seconds.