STRANGE WATER SPORT
“Pooh Sticks” In River
Yesterday, while two Russian spacemen circled the earth as examples of man’s greatest scientific achievement, people in Christchurch were dropping little sticks and other trash into the Avon to see which would float under the Worcester street bridge most rapidly. Other people asked what was going on. “Pooh sticks.” they were told. “We did it last year. There are prizes for the ones who drop the fastest-floating Pooh sticks We’re university students and . . .”
The other people walked away saying things like “Humph” and “Might’ve known.” The Pooh sticks contest, derived from A. A. Milne’s stories, was over very quickly. There were seven contests, with seven prizes in the form of useful honey-pots containing burst balloons. Students from many parts of New Zealand—fortuitously here anyway for New Zealand Universities Winter Tournament—took part, but the consistent winner was Canterbury University with its two maroon and gold Pooh sticks. It did not seem to matter that one of the Canterbury Pooh sticks was not really a stick, but a piece of painted enamel-ware complete with handle.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19620814.2.75
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CI, Issue 29900, 14 August 1962, Page 11
Word Count
180STRANGE WATER SPORT Press, Volume CI, Issue 29900, 14 August 1962, Page 11
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