Riders are scrambling to beat the deadline to enter in advance of the Beccles Cycle for Life annual charity ride on May 13.

The advance registration period runs to this Saturday, May 5 and there are already more than 120 entries for the event, which is organised by the Rotary Club of Beccles.

Those who miss the advance registration deadline can enter on the day at the slightly higher rate of £15 per head or £30 for a family group of four people (one or two adults and two or three children), or with another £5 for one extra child.

Norfolk and Suffolk Financial Services Limited is again donating five valuable prizes this year for sponsored riders to win, some for children, to be drawn at Beccles Hospital Fete on the last Saturday in June.

Lord Somerleyton is also offering two prizes, which are for rider who raises the most sponsorship and also for the runner-up. The first prize is dinner, bed and breakfast at the Fritton Arms and the second is dinner at the Dukes Head, Somerleyton.

This year’s 17th annual ride is in aid of East Anglian Air Ambulance and the Rotary club’s charitable trust, which helps many other charitable causes, many of them local.

Distances offered are eight, 16, 25, 41 or 50 miles on country roads. A certificate for the distance ridden will be offered to all who finish. The route for the shortest distance is very different this year.

Full details of the ride and easy advance entry online is available via becclescycleforlife.org