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Race Around the UK pits wits of competitors

Julia GregorySouth West
Procurement Patrol Ross has short dark hair and is to the left of the picture with a teddy bear seated on a red and gold name plate rading Britannia. There is also a gold coloured bell attached to the wall nearby. Michael has dark hair. They are both wearing T-shirts with the Race Across the UK logo and are Michael alos has a dark khai jacket on.Procurement Patrol
Winners Ross Stevens and Michael Hill had to solve clues and travel quickly

The winners of a charity Race Across the UK who had to solve nautical clues which took them from Dartmouth in Devon to Inverness in Scotland in just 42 hours said planning travel connections required the most effort.

Michael Hill, of winning team Procurement Patrol, said: "It was the trickiest part to solve."

Fellow team member Ross Stevens said: "It's a game of really tight margins" as they were not allowed to hitch a lift or use an online map service in the fund-raiser for the Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity.

Twenty-three teams of two from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines and their supporters set off from the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth on Tuesday.

Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity Two smiling woman are striding out in a city earing T-shirts with the words Race Acrss the UK on them.Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity
Competitors, including Zadie Looker and Julie Wylie from team Missed It By Five Minutes, had to follow clues and complete challenges

The four-day event is based on the BBC's Race Across The World and competitors headed off to a mystery destination with very few resources which Hill and Stevens completed in just over two days.

They had riddles to solve along the way on the Race Across the UK, and had to ask people to help them with travel and a bed for the night.

The challenge took them to Plymouth where they had to take photos at key landmarks, before heading to Kings Lynn - where they snatched two hours sleep at the train station - and Nelson's birthplace in Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk.

They also stopped off in Newcastle before heading to Inverness.

Kindness of strangers

Stevens said the kindness of stangers helped them.

He said: "People could see us running through stations and on some occasions they gave us money."

The pair, who work in procurement, had just £500 with them and said travel companies gave them charity tickets which helped them in their quest.

Hill said: "We had roll mats and sleeping bags with us," but added "we could have travelled lighter than that".

He added that they knew people who had been helped by the charity, which supports sailors, Royal Marines and their families, and they were pleased to raise awareness of it through the event.

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