Battle entry a cool idea
THE Winter Olympics inspired this year’s Battle of Flowers’ entry from the Le Page family, who will be using thousands of real flowers in their recreation of a bobsleigh.
The entry will be one of many in this year’s Battle, which is taking place on the second day of the North Show, tomorrow.
The Le Page family are no strangers to the event, having competed for several years, but Roger Le Page said he had been involved with many floats in the past.
‘When I was watching the Winter Olympics a year or two ago I thought it was something we could do,’ he said.
About 6,000 real flowers will be used, plus about 200 paper ones.
Flowers are supplied by the show organisers and Mr Le Page had ordered purple, yellow, white and pink, while the paper flowers will be in red and blue.
Mr Le Page’s father Ken and brother Colin built the frame and were completing it over the weekend. They will be joined by their wives Heidi, Heather and Hannah, along with other helpers, on Wednesday night for the last-minute task of flowering the float.
Special helmets have also been made for the three-man ‘crew’ of the sleigh – Mr Le Page’s 12-year-old daughter Emily and her cousins, twins Summer and Sienna, 4.
The three children are also old-hands of appearing in the Battle, with Emily taking the role of Tom the cat on their ‘Tom and Jerry Dodgem Chase’ float last year, while
her cousins were Jerry the mouse and his nephew.
That entry saw the family scoop the junior Prix d’Honneur and the prize for the best illuminated small float.
