Team Mud

Chris and Graeme Elliott survive the MacMillan Cancer 4×4 Challenge and Raise £8,000 for Charity.

"June last year I got a phone call from my brother telling me he had entered us. Great news when you’re sitting with a broken collarbone! Still, gave me time to learn about websites and www.teammud.co.uk was set up and the sponsorship raising had begun.

Fast forward to 9th March, and 2 90’s later, we were sitting at Britpart, in the cold, waiting for the event to start, surrounded by 59 other nutty teams and everything from Freelanders to Series II’s, Jeeps to Range Rovers, and 2 nutters in an XC90.

The first night saw no arguments between us and a 1am finish somewhere in Wales after a nights scatter orienteering. We woke up to find ourselves on the front lawn of a hotel. Why did we not notice that on the way in? Would have saved a night in a tent!

Saturday brought more of the same with numerous clues and number plates to spot. The day was spent travelling through Snowdonia towards Bala and the second campsite and a 1830 finish. Unfortunately, some landowners had withdrawn permission at the last minute and driving time has had to be cut down due to an unfortunate incident in the Forest of Dean earlier in the year.

Sunday saw a trip to Bala 4×4 centre where Team Mud duly rose up to the challenge and went wading…

…got stuck halfway through and had to reverse out. All Terrains!!!! The course was fantastic with some very steep rocky sections - the CG Lock really came into its own here - the last thing we needed was to submarine out of the seat while looking for sections of number plates!

The final journey up and over the Devils staircase was a mixture of clue spotting and map reading, with the final leg to the hotel along the M56. At rush hour. So we went the back roads.

The dinner was a great event with over £2,000 raised on the night through a raffle and auction, which I decided to take over!

Team Mud walked away with prize for top fund raising with over £8000 raised and more coming in. And I got a cuddle from Kate Erswell!

We would like to thank all our sponsors and everyone who donated. After the huge effort we made this year we’re not sure if we will enter next year, as Chris is getting married and has to get that all sorted out!"

Chris and Graeme Elliott