Swapping Arrows for Barrows: Team set to replace the Reds after cancelled UK displays

For most elite display squadrons, being grounded is a less-than-ideal situation, but this is the unfortunate reality for the Red Arrows team, who have been forced to cancel some UK shows after bad weather grounded them in Canada. 

But for another elite squadron, being grounded is their speciality. 

Meet the Red Barrows. Swapping wings for wheels, their chosen mode of transport is subject to none of the tedious weather requirements of their airborne counterparts – it is, of course, the tried and trusted, and sometimes slightly tinny, wheelbarrow.

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Reporting for Duty 

Hailing from Bradninch in Devon, this handlebar grasping, handlebar mustachioed group, are set to replace the crimson jets at Lyme Regis Lifeboat Week, managing to squeeze the event into a jam-packed schedule of apple pie fairs and car shows. 

Whilst their tricks might remain slightly closer to the ground than the initially anticipated ones, the team pride themselves on death-defying low passes involving rings of fire and smoke trails. So, what they may lack in height, they certainly make up for in skill. 

Speaking to BFBS Forces News, Biffa – one of the 13 finest pilots to grip a barrow – told of the group's reaction to their new slot.  

"We're all completely and utterly bowled over. It's sort of one of those running gags that if the Red Arrows can't make it, we can always fill in. [It's] utterly unexpected but we're all really quite excited about the whole thing. 

"To our great surprise, we've taken off," he added. (No pun intended.) 

And whilst he won't divulge training secrets – after all, not everyone can look that good in a flight suit and gravity defying scarf – he reassured event-goers that they will not be disappointed.

"We'll do our best and give you the full performance as best we can – we're confident and we know what we're doing."

Gallantry on the grass 

This confidence is vital for the Red Barrows to stand out in a stacked line-up of events at Lifeboat Week, including, but not limited to, a greasy pole competition and a bathtub race. 

To their unexpected landing, Mark Ellis, the lead of Lifeboat Week said: "A squadron of wheelbarrows is not quite what was planned, but we are delighted to welcome the Red Barrows at such short notice."

So, from one elite squadron to another, the Barrows message to the Arrows is simple: "Keep safe chaps, keep safe."

The Red Barrows will stage their display at 11:30 on Sunday 16 August in Lyme Regis for the RNLI's Lifeboat Week.