'Dirty' boar ends Poacher glory chase

A football-loving boar has been named as the character who cruelly ended a city icon's hopes of glory.

Poacher the Imp has claimed he was shoved to the floor during the Mascot Grand National at Huntingdon Racecourse.

The Lincoln City mascot was in sixth position and in sight of the front runners as he raced for glory with two fences to go.

But as the industrious Imp powered on for the finish line he fell to the ground after an apparent push to the back.

Poacher was left with a damaged horn and ear after the incident, which happened as 74 mascots tackled the one-furlong course.

And after studying video footage Gary Hutchinson (29), from Newtoft, near Lincoln, who has played Poacher for 10 years, said it appeared Barty Boar was to blame.

"I was sixth going into the final two jumps and I was clearly taken out by Barty Boar. He has given me a big shove over the jump."

Lincoln City media manager John Vickers said: "After extensive surveying of video evidence from a number of different sources and different photographs, we can confirm it is Barty Boar. We will now discuss what line to take to help move this issue forward."

Barty Boar, from the children's novel Runaway Success, and his creator SW Parry were unavailable for comment.

For more on the race row, see Tuesday's Echo.