CONGRATULATIONS went out to the Cliff Richard Appreciation Society as they stormed to victory in the Beaconsfield stretcher race today.

They were the quickest of the 18 teams to complete the boozy challenge at the town's annual Country Fayre this afternoon.

With so many teams competing everyone was sent running on a time trial basis, and although the team named in honour of Cliff Richard were first across the line they had a nervous wait before victory was confirmed.

The team of Dave Mumford, Dan Robinson, John Penge and Tom Perry - who carried youngster Kai Walker round on their stretcher - finished a full 15 seconds ahead of second-placed Stand and Deliver, who in turn pipped the third-placed Banshees by just a second.

John said: "We were first over the line but I had my doubts we were going to win. I thought we were top three. We did walk bits of it so it was a surprise."

The team - who are friends from school - had been putting in plenty of graft to prepare themselves for the race, where teams race around the five pubs in Beaconsfield Old Town whilst carrying someone on a stretcher, stopping at each boozer to down a swift ale.

John said: "The drinking was no problem, we are seasoned pros at that. We had done a bit of sprint training. Dan does a lot of running and Dave is known as The Machine. Tom collapsed at the end though."

As for the reason behind their name?

"We were called Cliff Richard's Death Squad but they wouldn't let us have it - we were censored. We had to change it."

It was the fourth time the team had entered the race, with victory beating their previous best finish of fourth place.

A fifth member of the team, Mark Stroud, ended up joining the Banshees as they were a man light and helped them to third place.

He joked: "Maybe I've been the weak link all these years."

The prize for the best fancy dress team went to Cool Runnings - a consolation to the penguin suit wearing squad as they finished a distant 18th out of 18.

But it wasn't the only award they won, as they were also victorious in the drinking contest. At each of the five stops, at least two members of the team had to drink - but Cool Runnings were the only side where all the members drank at each refreshment stop.