Money rolled in from Portsmouth’s Pramolympics in 1976

Lured by a carillon of Olympic chimes, hundreds of prams wheeled and wobbled over the common to Southsea’s major Pramolympics.
Portsmouth Leukaemia Research Fund team tackled pramassault course.Portsmouth Leukaemia Research Fund team tackled pramassault course.
Portsmouth Leukaemia Research Fund team tackled pramassault course.

Jointly organised by Portsmouth and Southsea Round Table, Portsmouth Lions and Portsmouth North Rotary Club, Southsea’s second Pramolympics – in aid of the handicapped – was trying to net more than the £4,000 raised in 1975. 

More than 150 outgrown prams were brought out of retirement, painted and decorated like fairground furnishings. Teams competed in the sponsored marathon walk and field events which included the pramassault course and inter-pub shuttle, boosted by a yard of ale between sprints. Never did so many ‘babies’ drink so few bottles of milk. Some of their mothers – bearded, hairy and suspendered – preferred to build up their bonny babies with soothing bottles of brown ale or gin and tonic. 

Thousands of spectators enjoyed the sun, laughs and spills as maxi-babes were squeezed through car tyres, tipped across finishing lines and thrown through barricades to tot up points and pounds.