Fundraising - Oxfam Open at Skipton Tennis Centre - Sunday 26th May

Skipton Tennis Centre kindly offered their courts for us for free to hold a mini tournament in a bid to raise some more funds to go towards our pledge of £1800.  The weather was on our side again and with lasting sunshine for most of the afternoon some of us even left with sunburn!

We worked on a simple knockout basis and had 3 medals, bronze, silver and gold for the top 3 players. Some of the tennis skills displayed were pretty impressive!

Unfortunately Joel was unable to defend his champion title (after having held it for the last few years!).

Photos below...

Jez and Neville

Nick practising his model pose!

Getting ready for the tournament

Ball boys, scorers and matches!

Grant Pozzana

James Robertson

Selvah Rasappah

Neville in action!

Joel Dalby (Bronze), Gareth Ward (Gold) and Neville Grant (Silver)

Skipton Tennis Centre

Fundraising at HML - Friday 24th May

Thanks to those who baked we had a very full trolley of cakes and other sweet treats and samosas for sale at the HML offices in Skipton on Friday 24th May.

As usual the samosas went in a flash and we were left with the same thought as every other time we've order them - "we should have ordered more" lol

We had a raffle with many prizes on offer, including bottles of wine, beer, chocolates, jewellery, games, a cricket bat and even a space hopper!

A dingbats quiz also circulated and a Mr Bump novelty cake for auction.

A total of near £700 was raised and this was shared with the Samaritans charity so The Nerd Herd earned £350 from the day!

Mr Bump - winning bid of £12

Raffle prizes

Dingbats

Cake trolley after having been refilled 3 times!

Thanks to those who sponsored our pig racing event!

An early arrival at the Cross Keyes pub gave the Nerd Herd team a good chance to set up the pig racing board and warm up the pigs! :-D  Some photos to share below and once again thanks to all those who sponsored pigs and races to allow us to raise another £200 plus towards a great cause!

Pigs at the ready!

Pig race track and lanes

Spider pig cake prize, won by Jessica Liu

Winner!!

Pigs in action!  Looks like pig no 2 pipped the post!

Fundraising with Pig Racing and Tennis!

38 miles overnight training walk from Horton to Skipton - 10th May 2013!

Finally, it was time to tackle the overnight walk, the last 'long' training walk before the event!!!  This would be a true test if all our training so far had paid off with the added challenge of walking in the pitch black with only head torches to light the way!  And of course, it would be a very good reflection of what it will be like on the big day...

Today's weather was the worst by far out of all the training walks we have completed.  Setting off early Friday evening at 5pm from Horton in Ribblesdale we were met with consistent cloud and light drizzle, heavier rain at times.  The rain the night before had made the trek up to and across Cam Fell very boggy, creating many opportunities for 'near miss' slips although I did manage to slip and fully plant both hands and legs and a bit of my rucksack in it!  Luckily that was the only time.  The guys managed to stay steadier on their feet.

Following a short stop in Buckden we continued to Kettlewell where our supporter Nick met us around 2am  with hot drinks and chocolate treats, which were very well received (thanks Nick!!).  We could also finally change out of our wet socks and shoes, after having 'squelched' all the way from Cam Fell in our original pairs and of course put on more layers as we headed into dawn.

The morning sun didn't let us down as we wandered onto Boss Moor crossing over from Conistone Moor.  It was refreshing to be faced with some blue sky and the sound of the early morning birds.  It gave us a little bit of a boost since we were tired, exhausted, physically and mentally hurting by now.  We were nearly falling asleep walking at times and existing injuries were having a field day!

One more short stop in Hetton and we were on our final leg back to Skipton.  We were hoping to arrive around 9am but landed just after 10.  Not a bad effort at all, well done team!

A few photos we managed to take along the way...

A large hedgehog intrigued us for  a moment!

James crossing a thin bridge in the pitch black!

Emma doing the same! 

After carefully watching which stones James stepped on and
deciding it was too hard for me I went to cross at a different
(much easier) point and still soaked both my shoes anyway,
much to James and Joel's amusement!

Focus over the next weeks will turn back to fundraising as our bodies recover and rest for the main event....

Fundraising fun, team logos and passes!

As you can tell from the amount of blogging I've done today I've got a little time on my hands and have been working on sponsorship and fundraising ideas.

Plans are being put in place for Pig Racing, Cake Stall, Quiz and possibly a tennis tournament, updates to follow...

Adapted from the US action-comedy series 'Chuck', our captain Joel came up with the idea of putting walking boots on the nerd herd logo, (subtle but different and clever) so here is our version:

And here are the passes I've created for a bit of fun:

Superstar supporter Nick!

Walkers

Our team poster is still work in progress so watch this space...

Jez completes the West Highland Way!! 2nd May 2013

Well done to Jez for completing the West Highland Way, the equivalent of walking marathon distance each day for a few consecutive days, with no injuries and no blisters, so Trailtrekker will be easy in comparison right Jez? ;-)