Page 72 - Light Dragoons 2022 CREST

The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
The UK Challenge
“Bit of an odd one”, read the mes- sage from Col. Charlie Mayo (LD). “There’s a civilian team-building event in the Lake District. Phys, puzzles, that sort of thing. I’m running a veterans team, and
we’ve secured you a place; fancy it?”
UK Challenge is an annual competition where teams from London’s top corpora- tions pay an exorbitant fee to cycle, run and kayak around picturesque locations in the UK, solving riddles and challenges for points. It is sort of like a cross between a triathlon and a crossword championship, or like a tough mudder where the puzzles are set by MENSA.
In July 2021, a number of international teams could not attend due to COVID travel restrictions. The organisers, many of whom had military links, decided to invite some ‘Heroes Teams’ from Defence, the NHS and Police to make up numbers. Lts Digby and Riall, 2Lt Lyon, and Tprs Hardman, Wheeler and Thorley there- fore set off to Lancaster where we met over 50 other teams from organisations like Accenture, BAE Systems, Gymshark, Airbus, the Invictus Foundation, along- side some bemused blokes from 3 RIFLES. “How long have you been training for this?” asked some keen young analyst from Accenture. “Because we started in January.” I had no answer, having cobbled a team together the week before.
On arrival, we were given bags of bright yellow ‘running suits’, bibs, and our instructions for the first race. We had to imagine we were on a giant snakes and ladders board, and ‘rolled the dice’ by running/cycling/orienteering to different points around Lancaster University which changed every 4 minutes. This blew our minds, but after a sprint start we were off, and soon got into the swing of things. It
was lucky we did, because this was actually the simplest challenge by far.
As night fell, the team captains were abducted and taken to Lancaster Castle Prison where we had to solve jigsaws in return for clues. Our teams down the hill solved riddles for coordinates, to which they ran through the city, eventually fig- uring out enough information to free us and get to the central park where we accu- mulated points on a complicated obstacle course.
After minimal sleep, we got up early to drive into the Lake District. We split into pairs, and canoed across Lake Windermere or ran up the surrounding mountains to hit ‘farming spots’ where we grew notional hemp for points. In the afternoon, we were redesignated as intergalactic explorers, and canoed/cycled/ran to various places across
Lt Digby enjoying the late nights
Our (slightly underpowered) construction
the countryside to connect wormholes, make first contact with aliens, and collect resources which we traded at the end. After dark, we moved to a country estate where we solved riddles in return for coordinates to which we ran collecting ingredients for life-saving potions.
The final day started with a construction event, where we made a self-propelled vehicle from timber and bungee cords (thankfully we worked next to the Airbus team, who gave us some invaluable engi- neering advice). We then moved to Halton Camp for a 9km run and 20km cycling event, where time could be shaved off by solving riddles. Capt Addison joined us as our ‘CEO’, and added value despite break- ing the chain on his bike and needing to be pulled the last 5km. The race was followed by medals and refreshments, before a large barbecue and prize-giving ceremony. Tprs
Tpr Hardman searching for wormholes on Lake Windermere
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Capt Addison lighting up the dancefloor