THE hosts of a village fete have described the horrific moment boy racers crashed and hit a marshall.
Graham Argyle, 59, suffered a broken leg and his other ankle was broken in two places. He  was flown to hospital.
He was hit by a Volkswagen Golf that careered off Great Tey Road.
The other car, an Audi S4, smashed through a fence, hedge and an iron gate.
Mr Argyle, who was marshalling the Great and Little Tey church fete, at the Old Rectory, is recovering in Colchester General Hospital.
The car narrowly missed his daughter, Lucy, 16, who was marshalling the opposite side of the narrow country lane and saw the car plough into her father. Sir Bay Laurie and Lady Laurie, who own the Old Rectory, described hearing her calls for help.
Lady Laurie said: “We just heard his daughter, Lucy, scream. Graham has always helped the fete and is an all-round good person.
“We are all distraught by what happened. In 29 years of hosting the fete we have never had any incident. Luckily the event had finished. If it had happened half an hour earlier it could have caught a number of people leaving.”
The two cars were racing along Great Tey Road, heading towards the A120, on Saturday at about 5pm, when they hit each other and careered off opposite sides of the road.
The black VW Golf, with an Irish registration plate, and a dark-blue Audi S4 were abandoned after becoming stuck on separate sides of the road.
“Four men got out of the cars and ran off.
Sir Bay Laurie, who opened the fete at 2pm, said the suspects ran off into nearby country lanes.
He said: “They were shouting and fighting each other.
“It didn’t last very long.”
Sue Percival, fete organiser, said: “I was clearing up, putting things in my boot, when I saw the first car flying down the road. It all happened so quickly.”