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Arise Knight Frank

Face paint, teamwork and mental power helped a spirited foursome from Knight Frank to beat off a record 19 other contenders in the seventh Stoford Challenge.

With skill, intellect and a sense of humour as the main tools this year, Rebecca Kay, Michael Davison, Adam Ramshaw and Charlie Taylor took the weekend contest at the Outdoor Adventure Centre near Bude on the rugged Cornwall coast in their stride

Matching their previous victory in the contest in 2004, Knight Frank pipped last year’s winners Francis Graves in the Stoford-organised event by a narrow margin.

The team are pictured with their trophy still in camouflage after their success in building a ‘Ray Smears’ campsite (loosely based on the Ray Mears Bushcraft Survival TV series) relying on instructions voiced to them through a walkie-talkie.

The Knight Frank team also excelled in the canoeing event in which teams had to orienteer around a lake in search of animals that had escaped from a zoo – not quite the danger that it sounds because all the creatures turned out to be stuffed toys!

Also new this year were the Widemouth Games, a series of ten events that involved playground activities such as quoits, egg and spoon racing and using plastic bats to try to keep a toy hippo in the air for as long as possible.

Other events included ‘Stoford Village’, in which participants were called on to use their property and land-use planning skills to build a village using sand, seaweed and other material from the shore.

More arduous activities included abseiling, rock climbing, raft building and orienteering.

Charlie Taylor from Knight Frank said this year’s Stoford Challenge was “excellent fun, well organised and very enjoyable”.

“It was great that the new emphasis on problem solving and working efficiently as a team created a more sociable occasion with most teams enjoying good company in the Boardriders Bar until past midnight.”

He added: “The event also proved that our team has really got it upstairs!”

Photographs from the event can be found by clicking here.