I blame Eddy

When you're a practised Pooh-sticker, you expect to win. The little-uns were quite naive about currents and sticktactics, so they needed a tutorial before the competition started. But youth is youth, full of over-exuberance.

Without waiting for my words of wisdom, they flung their sticks into the chalk stream below the little bridge without any apparent strategy. Crestfallen, figuring they must learn the hard way, I dropped mine into the fastest flowing water.

As their sticks reached the small weir that was the finish, my own stick, caught in a current, decided to turn back. Most edifying!