Rally pair help air ambulance (From Witney Gazette)

Rally pair help air ambulance

4:06pm Tuesday 2nd September 2008 in Witney By Thom Airs

A pair of car fans used an enormous carrot, a 1p postcard and half a cream tea to help them complete a 900-mile treasure hunt.

Stewart Griffiths and Kathryn Drewett dressed up as mysterious test driver the Stig from TV's Top Gear and covered 300 miles a day over the Bank Holiday weekend.

The colleagues, who work for Oxfordshire County Council, took part in the three-day Britball Run in Mr Griffiths's MGF sports car and raised more than £700 for the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance.

The event, which began in Gaydon, north of Banbury, took 15 teams around southern England, guided only by a series of challenges.

Mr Griffiths said: "It was fantastic. Overall, we finished sixth, which wasn't too bad.

"Unfortunately, on the Saturday, the company that was supplying me with the white overalls to look like the Stig couldn't get there until mid-morning, so we ended up setting off at 10.15am when all the other competitors had left at 8.30am.

"I think if we had started on time and done all the challenges, we could have quite possibly been in the lead."

The aim of the rally, which was not timed, was to complete the route in the fewest number of miles, while tackling a series of challenges, with reduced mileage bonuses on offer for completing them succesfully.

Mr Griffiths, 34, from Eynsham, and Mrs Drewett, 33, from Littlemore, Oxford, took in locations such as Waddesdon Manor, the London Eye, Stonehenge, Cheddar Gorge, Gloucester and Cheltenham.

Mr Griffiths said: "On Monday morning we had a quiz before setting off, which Kathryn and I won, on all the places we had visited.

"We had some really interesting challenges. One that we failed on was arriving back at the finish with a full cream tea. We got jam and tea but couldn't find scones or clotted cream.

"At Stonehenge we had to buy the cheapest thing in the shop, and I managed to persuade them to sell me a postcard for 1p. We also had to find the longest carrot, which we won by finding one that was 54cm, which meant we got 54 miles taken off our total."

He added: "So far, we have raised £669, plus what we got in the collection tins, which have gone to be counted.

"As we were entering places we would both put on our helmets to look the Stig and we had lots of people looking and pointing."