A FIRST ever sponsor has stepped forward to support the annual charity Monmouth Raft Race which is hoping a bumper 80 rafts will take to the water for this year's race.

The award-winning Crown at Whitebrook restaurant will now sponsor the 45-year-old race which has raised £71,000 for charity over the last six years.

The six-and-a-half mile race down the Wye starts at Monmouth and finishes at Tump Farm, Whitebrook, literally at the bottom of the road from the Crown.

The Crown's head chef, James Sommerin, who captained the restaurant's team last year, said: "We're very competitive and the Crown's crew is already in training. We're looking to tweak our raft for 2010 and hopefully improve our finishing position this time."

Race co-ordinator, Norman Williams of Monmouth Rotary Club said: "We've never had a sponsor in the past. We're extremely grateful to the very generous support we have received from the Crown which will go into helping make the raft race even better this year. We're hoping to have around 80 craft on the water taking part in September."

This year's race will be on September 5 and money raised will go to St David's Hospice Care. To find out how to enter, including useful advice on how to build a raft, go to http://www.monmouthraftrace.com">www.monmouthraftrace.com