Going round the bend for the annual Mad Club soapbox derby

You don't have to be mad to take part - but it might help if you want to join 'the club'.

Every year, members of the MAD Club don their helmets and climb aboard the homemade soapboxes they've lovingly turned into racing cars for a 1.25 mile charity race.

The club organisers derive their Meynell Arms Drinkers (MAD) title from the Meynell Ingram Arms pub in Hoar Cross where the event takes place.


The course twists and turns through lanes in the village close to Burton on Trent, in Staffs, and this year was watched today by a thousand spectators.

They clapped and cheered as the competitors risked life and limb in a variety of colourful craft with names such as 'Thunderbirds', 'Team Muppet, 'Whoever Next' and 'Where'd She Come From'.

Around 30 homemade soapboxes take part each year in battling it out for the best time on the track down School Hill within the village.

The competition is now in its fifth year, and last year raised £78,000 for Birmingham Children's Hospital and the Acorns Children's Hospice.