Singers start race for the strawberries in Tiptree (From Gazette)

Singers start race for the strawberries in Tiptree

3:30pm Friday 29th June 2012 in News By James Calnan

X FACTOR finalists Two Shoes gave a charity a signed pair of their heels as they launched this year’s Tiptree Strawberry Race.

More than 120 people attended the Wilkin & Sons event, which sees pickers try and collect as many strawberries as they can in 60 minutes.

This year’s winner was overseas student Svetlana Milhylova, who gathered 6.7 kilograms in an hour – more than a kilogram more than her nearest competitor.

Farm director Chris Newenham said: “While no records were broken, we raised lots of money for Brainwave, a very worthy charity.”

Singers Two Shoes – Charley Bird, from Basildon, and Lucy Texeira, from Shenfield – handed out the prizes and presented Brainwave with a signed pair of shoes so they could be auctioned to raise money. Witham-based Brainwave offers therapy to children with disabilities, which parents can do at home. Rachel Farrow, development co-ordinator, said: “It costs us £3,500 per child per year to keep on our exercise therapy programmes and some of these children come from Tiptree and the surrounding local areas.”

Les and Vera Goodson, veteran pickers for 20 years, won the long service award, while Bill Walsh was given a special mention for taking part in his 45th season in a row. John Goddard took first prize in the best hat competition, followed by Joyce Thomas.