A mad dash featuring dinosaurs, turkeys and fighter pilots has brought down the curtain on the festive season in a village near Farnham.

Seventeen hardy villagers took recycling to the next level on Saturday in the third annual Ewshot Christmas Tree Run.

The 500-metre race sees people carry or drag a Christmas tree down Church Lane from St Mary’s to the village hall.

And entrants showed plenty of baubles with a black dice, lumberjack, Charlie the Dinosaur and Spiky the Turkey among the motley crew at the start line.

Matt Hankin and Bonnie Henriksen claimed the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, while organiser and “Queen of Ewshot” Nancy Bassant had the honour of serving after-race drinks after collecting the wooden spoon.

“The number are growing all the time,” said the moustachioed Nancy, who praised Ewshot and its “amazing” people in her concluding speech.

“The first was ‘it’ll be a laugh and we’ll see how it goes’ but it keeps getting bigger.

“We put down roots and now it’s growing.”

“I think I had a respectable mid-table finish,” said Carl Jackett, looking resplendent in his fighter pilot garb. The run was the second outing for the Ewshot Fokkers who dazzled with their Spitfire display with wheelbarrows during the village’s summer show.

Dice man Andy Mulheirn counted himself lucky for not threatening the podium places, in admitting he wasn’t carrying his weight.

He said: “I only had two bits of tree so I think there would have been a scandal if I came first.”

“I love living in the village and the camaraderie of being part of everything,” said the triumphant Bonnie, who put her win down to running on Caesar’s Camp.

“I’ll definitely do it again next year. This lot should watch out as I might even do some training for it next year.”