Poohsticks is a game first mentioned in The House at Pooh Corner , a Winnie-the-Pooh book by A.A. Milne. It is a simple game which may be played on any bridge over running water; each player drops a stick on the upstream side of a bridge and the one whose stick first appears on the downstream side is the winner. The annual World Poohsticks Championships have been held at Day's Lock on the River Thames in the UK since 1984. [1]
Poohsticks was invented by English author A.A. Milne for his son Christopher Robin Milne. [2] The game first came to prominence upon Milne's description in his 1928 book The House at Pooh Corner, [3] as well as the 1983 Disney animated featurette Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore . As first depicted, protagonist Pooh accidentally drops a pine cone into a river from a bridge and, after observing how it appeared on the other side of the bridge, devises the rules for Poohsticks, later playing the game with the other characters, Christopher Robin, Tigger, and Eeyore. [4] [5]
Milne first played the game at a bridge located in Ashdown Forest, close to the village of Upper Hartfield, East Sussex, England. Built in 1907 and originally called Posingford Bridge, it is considered to be the bridge on which Milne and his son first played the game. [5] [6] However, it is uncertain whether the game was first played at the bridge and then written into the story, or vice versa. [2] The bridge maintained the public's interest and a campaign to rebuild it in the late seventies was considered important enough to feature on the BBC Nine O'Clock News. The bridge was subsequently reopened by Christopher Robin Milne and officially renamed as Poohsticks Bridge. [7]
The site was so popular that in 1999 the East Sussex county council made an appeal to Disney as the old wooden bridge had been worn down by an overwhelming number of visitors. [8] The company provided a substantial donation towards the estimated £30,000 needed to replace the bridge. Partly rebuilt in 1979, the donations from Disney, building firms and members of the public funded its complete reconstruction. The newly built and modernised bridge retained its precursor's original style. [9] A plaque was also placed to commemorate the occasion and thank those who financially contributed to the project. [6] The game can still be played in Ashdown Forest to this day and the site regularly attracts tourists from as far afield as the United States and Japan. [8] However, visitors are now advised to bring their own sticks, as previous visitors have caused damage to the trees in the vicinity. [2] [10]
The 'original' Poohsticks Bridge, reconstructed from parts of the original supplemented by similarly aged timber, and located near Penshurst, Kent, was sold at auction for over £131,000 in October 2021. The buyer, Lord De La Warr, intends to give it "pride of place" on his estate, Buckhurst Park, Sussex. [11]
The traditional game has inspired filmmakers and screenwriters and has been portrayed in the 1998 film Into My Heart with Rob Morrow and Claire Forlani, BBC sitcom To the Manor Born and also in a Marks & Spencer clothes advert where models, including Twiggy and Myleene Klass, played the game. The popularity of the game was underlined when it featured as a question on long-running British quiz series University Challenge . [5] The "Pooh-stick method" of estimating the flow of a stream gets its name from the use of one or more floating objects (typically passing under a bridge of known width) to calculate the speed at which the water is flowing. [12] [13]
A game for two players or more, in the traditional version of poohsticks the participants must drop a stick simultaneously on the upstream side of a bridge and run to the other side. The winner is the player whose stick first appears on the other side of the bridge. [1] Alternatively, players may decide upon a starting point on a river and a finish line farther downstream. The winner is the player whose stick first passes the finishing point. [4]
It is generally agreed that the stick must be made of organic materials, preferably willow, and not of any artificial materials. [10] All participants must drop their sticks at the same time, usually after a referee shouts "drop", "twitch" or any other agreed keyword. Additionally, no advantage may be gained through either dismantling the bridge or the use of any self-propelling stick devices. [14] The stick must be dropped, not thrown, into the water and any player who is deemed to have thrown their stick is disqualified. [10]
Poohsticks is considered to be a game of chance yet some players claim skill is involved. Some strategies involve the way in which the stick is held before it is dropped and trying to find the fastest route in the river. [5] Author Ben Schott outlined a throwing method as a winning strategy in his third book, Schott's Sporting, Gaming and Idling Miscellany , but his method was dismissed as cheating by competition organisers. [10] In any event, the turbulence around the bridge supports make the path of the stick very difficult to predict and may vary according to the season.
Poohsticks was brought to a larger audience by the annual World Poohsticks Championships. Originally these took place at Day's Lock on the River Thames near Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. but were later moved to Langel Common in Witney, also in Oxfordshire, and have attracted over 1,500 visitors, including many from overseas. [4] The championships features an individual event and a four-person team event. [2] Players come from a wide variety of countries including the United States, Japan, Kenya, Australia and England. [4] [5] [15] Before its move to Witney, the event took place from Little Wittenham Bridge but now uses a bridge over the River Windrush near Cogges Manor Farm.
The sporting event was started at Little Wittenham Bridge in 1984 by the lockkeeper, Lynn David, as a fund-raising event for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). [2] He noticed that people occasionally snapped sticks from nearby hedges to play the game and he then came up with the idea of a competition to aid the charity. He put out a box of sticks and a collection box and it soon became an annual event. [5] In this championship version of the game, a finish line is set up farther downstream and the winner is the first to pass this point. [16] The competition originally took place every January, but it was moved to March due to icy weather in 1997. [17]
The event proved popular with the local community and even attracted the attention of the foreign media. [18] After Lynn David's retirement, the running of the event was taken over by the former Rotary Club of Sinodun, based in nearby Wallingford. [5] Additionally, the funds raised were divided between the RNLI and charitable projects supported by the Rotary Club. [16] Twenty years after its first edition, the event had grown in popularity, attracting visitors from across the globe, and had been broadcast on television in countries including Russia, Japan and Czech Republic. [19] Additionally, VisitBritain, the official British tourist board, named it as a highlight in its collection of "Quirky British Events". [20] Throughout its existence, it has raised around £30,000 for the RNLI. [21]
The Championships were at risk of decline when in 2008 Sinodun Rotary Club declared that its members were simply too old to stage an annual event of its size. The then Sinodun president, David Caswell, stated: "The trouble is there is a lot of heavy work staging the event. Some of our members are over 70, and it was just getting too much". However, the Rotary Club of Oxford Spires declared that its members would continue hosting the event, thus preserving the competition for future generations. The President of Oxford Spires for 2008–2009, Liz Williamson, stressed that it should continue as the event was popular locally and demonstrated quirky English nature to a worldwide audience. [5]
The organisers announced in January 2015 that they had decided that the Little Wittenham site was no longer suitable, citing increasing logistical difficulties as the event had become more popular and the use of the land had changed. In June the World Championships were held at their new home, one of the cycle-track bridges over the River Windrush on Langel Common, near the Cogges Manor Farm Museum in Witney, Oxfordshire. For the first year at the new location, the organizers decided not to hold the 2015 team games, but team games were restored in 2016. The event continued to be held here until 2018; in 2019, the event was not held due to resourcing issues, and between 2020 and 2022 it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It restarted on 28th May 2023, commemorating the 40th anniversary, at Sandford-on-Thames. [22]
The winners of both the individual and team events receive a trophy or medal, and the second and third-placed individuals and teams also receive a smaller trophy or certificate. Despite claims that the game involves skill more than luck, no team or individual has ever won the competition more than once. The individual competition usually involves winning three rounds of matches before receiving an entry to the final. [5]
Although not a Poohsticks Society as such, the Rotary Club of Abingdon [23] is now responsible for the World Pooh Sticks Championships held annually since 1983, first at Days Lock on the River Thames then in Witney 2015 to 2018. [24] and the future event to be held in 2023. The Championships were voted 'Britain's Favourite Quirky Event' by Countryfile magazine readers in 2012 [25] and are carried out with the aim of raising money for a variety of charities. [26]
Revival of the Oxford University Pooh Sticks Society has begun thanks to students in Magdalen College, Oxford, with the creation of the Magdalen College Pooh Sticks Society (MCPSS) founded in April 2013 which mixes classic Pooh Sticks games with commentary and rules in the style of radio programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue . Of late the club has become increasingly well known inside the university and is no longer restricted solely to members of Magdalen College. [27]
Founded in 1993, members of the Pembroke College Winnie the Pooh Society of Pembroke College, Cambridge, pay homage to the works of A.A. Milne in a variety of ways, including playing games of Poohsticks alongside events such as visits to the 'real-life' Hundred Acre Wood. [28]
Alan Alexander Milne was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-the-Pooh overshadowed all his previous work. Milne served in both world wars, as a lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in the First World War and as a captain in the Home Guard in the Second World War.
Ernest Howard Shepard was an English artist and book illustrator. He is known especially for illustrations of the anthropomorphic animal and soft toy characters in The Wind in the Willows and Winnie-the-Pooh.
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Eeyore is a fictional character in the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. He is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-the-Pooh.
Piglet is a fictional character from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books. Piglet is Winnie‑the‑Pooh's closest friend amongst all the toys and animals featured in the stories. Although he is a "Very Small Animal" of a generally timid disposition, he tries to be brave and on occasion conquers his fears.
Piglet's Big Movie is a 2003 American animated musical adventure comedy-drama film released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 21, 2003. The film features the characters from the Winnie-the-Pooh books written by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard and is the third theatrically released Winnie the Pooh feature. In this film, Piglet is ashamed of being small and clumsy and wanders off into the Hundred Acre Wood, leading all of his friends to form a search party to find him.
Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is 12 miles (19 km) west of Oxford.
Eynsham is an English village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Oxford and east of Witney. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 4,648. It was estimated at 5,087 in 2020.
Dorchester on Thames is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Wallingford and 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Oxford. The town is a few hundred yards from the confluence of the River Thames and River Thame. A common practice of the scholars at Oxford was to refer to the river Thames by two separate names, with Dorchester on Thames the point of change. Downstream of the village, the river continued to be named The Thames, while upstream it was named The Isis. Ordnance Survey maps continued the practice by labelling the river as "River Thames or Isis" above Dorchester, however, this distinction is rarely made outside the city of Oxford.
The House at Pooh Corner is a 1928 children's book by A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard. This book is the second novel, and final one by Milne, to feature Winnie-the-Pooh and his world. The book is also notable for introducing the character Tigger. The book's exact date of publication is unknown beyond the year 1928, although several sources indicate the date of October 11.
Christopher Robin Milne was an English author and bookseller and the only child of author A. A. Milne. As a child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father's Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in two books of poems.
Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore is a 1983 American animated featurette based on the sixth chapter of both books Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne. Produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution, the short initially received limited release on March 11, 1983, before expanding to a wide release on March 25 as part of a double feature with the re-issue of The Sword in the Stone (1963), which it accompanied in most countries except Australia where it accompanied a reissue of Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). Directed by Rick Reinert, the featurette featured the voices of Hal Smith, John Fiedler, Will Ryan, Ralph Wright, and Paul Winchell.
Wittenham Clumps are a pair of wooded chalk hills in the Thames Valley, in the civil parish of Little Wittenham, in the historic county of Berkshire, although since 1974 administered as part of South Oxfordshire district.
Day's Lock is a lock on the River Thames near Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England on the Dorchester side of the river.
Long Wittenham is a village and small civil parish about 3 miles (5 km) north of Didcot, and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southeast of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from the former Wallingford Rural District to the new district of South Oxfordshire.
Little Wittenham Bridge is a footbridge across the River Thames in England near Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. It is just downstream of Day's Lock on the reach above Benson Lock and connects Little Wittenham to Dorchester.
Winnie-the-Pooh is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name in a children's story commissioned by London's Evening News for Christmas Eve 1925. The character is inspired by a stuffed toy that Milne had bought for his son Christopher Robin in Harrods department store, and a bear they had viewed at London Zoo.
Winnie the Pooh is a media franchise produced by The Walt Disney Company, based on A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's stories featuring Winnie-the-Pooh. It started in 1966 with the theatrical release of the short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.
Deb Hoffmann who resides in Waukesha, Wisconsin is recognized by Guinness World Records as the having the Largest Winnie-the-Pooh and Friends Memorabilia Collection.
