ORGANISERS of this year's World Poohsticks Championships want to strike a blow for Britain against the USA.

The contest, immortalised in the Winnie the Pooh books, takes place on the River Thames, near Days Lock Island at Little Wittenham, near Didcot, on March 15. It is being held by the Rotary Club of Sinodun, with help from the RNLI, the Northmoor Trust, and the Environment Agency.

Britain and the USA are rowing over where the original cuddly toys of Winnie the Pooh and his friends should be kept. The toys are currently in New York, but organisers of the tournament hope that a British win will help the campaign to have them returned to this country.

Richard Pengilley, junior vice-president of the Rotary Club of Sinodun, said: "The competition has an increased interest in it this year. The context of the Pooh story has always been in England.

"The Poohsticks championship is nothing to do with one-upmanship as far as that is concerned, but it might help get them back. They might even send them to us!"

The event, which involves teams dropping coloured sticks into the River Thames from bridges and seeing whose travels the quickest, attracts competitors from all over the world and regularly raises hundreds of pounds for charity.

Proceeds from this year's championships are going to the RNLI and the Rotary Club's project to improve the water supply in the Ugandan village of Kasaana.

Parking will be available at Hill Farm Meadow, and there will be more attractions for visitors than in previous years.

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