COMPETITORS have been lining up ready to get stuck in the mud for one of the most unusual events in Britain for more than 40 years.

The Maldon Mud Race gets underway next Sunday and will once again be receiving worldwide attention.

The race originated in 1973 with a dare by a local resident to the landlord of the Queens Head pub on Hythe Quay to serve him a meal on the saltings of the River Blackwater dressed in a dinner jacket.

After the challenge was accepted and completed it resulted in a bar being opened on the saltings the following year.

About 20 people made a mad dash across the driver bed, drank a pint of beer and dashed back, beginning the iconic race.

So many people took part in the event in subsequent years that the drinking of beer was discontinued and the race became just a run across the riverbed and back again.

The Mud Race continued to take place every year from the rear of the Queen’s Head public house until 1989.

At this point, despite public support, the race ceased due to a lack of facilities.

In 1993 work began to revive the race with the Maldon Carnival As- sociation looking to hold a winter event.

It was decided the Mud Race should be received as part of the Carnival Associations activities, with the help of the Lions Club of Maldon.

On Boxing Day 1994 the revived Mud Race took place at its new home in Promenade Park with 52 entrants and around 5,000 coming to watch the event.

The race, which even had one entrant from Holland, was covered on national television and by the national press, with reports reaching as far as South Africa.

Events were held again in 1996 and 1997 by which time it was televised in the USA and Australia.

But concern over health and safety saw the event not take place between 1998 and 2000.

In 2011 changes were made which saw the race move from its traditional end of December date to the last weekend of April.

A whole host of celebrities have competed in the race over the past couple of years, including comedi- ans Sean Lock and Jo Brand in 2010 and Fatima Whitbread in 2009.

In 1997 there was even a proposal at the finish line.

But at the heart of race is raising money for charity with hundreds of thousands of pounds having been collected over the years.

And organisers are preparing for what could be yet another record breaking year.