GB rowers cut their commute to training...

THE prankster of Sonning has struck again.

Anyone driving past the Playhatch roundabout, where you turn off for the village, last week will have noticed a bright orange tent and a camping chair on the grass.

There was also a washing line with a swimming costume, underwear, polo shirt and a jumper on it, as if to indicate someone had taken up residence at this most unhomely spot.

Among those who spotted the display were the Great Britain rowers, who train at the Redgrave Pinsent rowing lake just along the road towards Caversham. Men’s heavyweight rower Ollie Cook posted pictures of his fellow athletes Moe Sbihi and Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell having some fun at the “campsite”.

He joked: “The pressure of Rio 2016 has caused some of the GB rowing team to cut their commute to training.”



Reilly-O’Donnell added that the tent was a “modern art installation”.

Of course, there was no one actually living in the tent and this was probably just the latest in a series of pranks in the area.

In April last year, a sign resembling a large red Google Maps ‘A’ pin was installed on the same roundabout.

In September 2013 a hoax red letterbox appeared on Sonning Bridge, so that it appeareed to be accessible only by boat. Illusionist Uri Geller, who then lived in Sonning, claimed it could have something to do with Isabella, the ghost of a child that he claimed walks on the bridge.

The campsite is no longer there — I am reliably informed that tent, chair and clothes line were removed by the binmen from Biffa.

Now we’ll just have to wait for the joker’s next hoax...