 Leaders and team members alike awoke with a sense of urgency, knowing that this morning they were heading off to Exeter racecourse for the start of the event’s final day.
Richard Dunwoody, jump jockey legend, polar explorer and leader of the Charity Team, joined other team leaders for an early morning coffee and Tic-Tac lesson; the traditional method of hand signing used by bookmakers to communicate betting odds. Having mastered the art of Tic-Tac, Leaders would be set the task of communicating the betting odds to their teams in the forthcoming BG Grand National horse race – the theme of Stage Four.
With Team Perenco in pole position, closely followed by Team 8, BG Fit For the Future and Team 9, BG Merlions on the leader board, Team Leaders knew they had a crucial role to play in their teams’ success and that competition was going to be tough.
After the half hour Tic-Tac lesson, Leaders were ready to join their teams for the start of this two and half hour set time stage. Bang! And they’re off! After solving a start puzzle, teams headed to two Information Points to determine the location of 13 BG Grand National horses positioned around the course. Meanwhile, the Leaders visited the ‘BG Bookmaker’ to use their newly acquired Tic-Tac skills to receive odds on the 13 horses.
Re-grouping in the start area, teams and Leaders discussed the odds for each horse relative to their position on the course and strategised which horses to back. To win the bets placed, teams had to get their chosen horses across the finish line within the set time. Failure to collect a horse that had been bet on carried a significant penalty so teams needed to formulate their plans carefully. Bonus time was also available to teams able to solve puzzles at Hurdle Points around the course. With the odds calculated, Leaders returned to the BG Bookmaker and placed bets on their chosen horses before the teams dispersed out onto the course.
With horses located in different areas of the course, some available by bike and some by foot only, the teams split into pairs. The Charity Team, led ably by experienced Captain Dunwoody collected three horses, however romping home to victory with commentary from Tic-Tac expert, Wally Pyrah over the course loudspeaker was Team Nexen. Their delighted Team Leader, Sorrel Holmes, said: “Once again we strategised well and got all our horses to the finish line. We had our strongest team members out on the bikes and our fittest on the run sections working well to everyone’s abilities. And our team leader showed some great Tic-Tac skills!”
The challenge, made critically important by the presence of the Leaders, was a show of team work, communication, strategy and endurance, a great culmination of all the qualities required to compete in the BG Energy Challenge. With one more task to complete the teams didn’t have much time to deliberate before heading off to the start of fifth and final stage and run for home!
- Ends -
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