IT WAS a great shame that health and safety rules wiped out the ever-popular Pooh sticks championships yesterday.

Given that it draws its inspiration from AA Milne’s The House At Pooh Corner, it’s hardly an event one would think would be ruled out because of danger.

It would be easy to get on the back of the Environment Agency.

People dropping sticks into a river is not the most hazardous of Sunday pastimes and no one has ever fallen into the Thames during the event’s 27-year history.

Yes there should be some safety precautions in place but not to the extent that it kills off such a community fun day.

But the agency and organisers are right to have given some consideration to the very small chance that someone may have fallen in and drowned. And what would then have been said if it emerged the event was run despite the risk being identified?

Hopefully the event in September will be as successful as usual and this weekend’s cancellation does not damage the World Pooh Sticks Champs irrecoverably.