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The UK Rhino Charge was at the usual location
of Pippingford Park again this year and, despite
a late change of dates, raised over £7,500
with a small amount more still to be received.
With the threat of Foot and Mouth Disease in south
east England all vehicles had to have their wheels
disinfected on arrival but otherwise the event
was the usual mixture of off-road navigation,
special tasks involving this year 4x4s and ropes
- as might be expected, but also a dinghy and
an access tower just to provide a bit of variation!
Team AJS, Andy Sargeant, Dean Harmes,
Dave Harrison and John Legg, appropriately driving
a Yamaha Rhino ATV, arrived determined to improve
on last year's second place and swept the board
this year winning the Rhino Charge (with 554 points),
and also the Tiger Lines, raising the most sponsorship
and thus winning the Victor Ludorum to boot! This
would not have been the case had the "Grizzly
Rovers", Richard Hilton, Chris Smart and
partners from the South Coast Land Rover Club
in a Classic Range Rover, not tried to get one
more Tiger Line punch and got themselves seriously
stuck. This made them run out of time and end
up as non-finishers - with an extra 10 minutes
they would have been 2nd overall and 1st in the
Tiger lines but such is life!
 The
family team of Janet, Melanie and Mark Edwards
in a husband/dad Rhino Ray Edwards prepared Suzuki
Jimny came 2nd overall (with 496 points) and 2nd
in the Tiger Lines showing admirable consistency
and concentration throughout the day. UK Rhino
Ark chairman Guy Tritton calmed his driving style
down enough to come 3rd overall in a borrowed
Land Rover Series 2A after entering every UK Charge
to date. Gurvir Bhabra guided his massive Land
Cruiser through the trees and round the Tiger
Lines to gain the Spirit of the Event Trophy and
also came 3rd in the Tiger Lines.
Family connections were everywhere
this year with Glenda Bowden and friends winning
the Ladies prizes and Lawrence and Melissa Bowden
winning the prize for the best team of two vehicles,
despite the latter also being landed with the
"Where the F*** Are We" trophy for driving
off without any paperwork, running out of petrol
and breaking the front axle on dad John's Jeep.
Both of them required a pit crew to keep their
vehicles going but battled on regardless.
Clerk of the Course Brian Hartley
and his team of marshals, aka the Red Coats from
Club Off Road, did a sterling job keeping track
of the competitors as they appeared and disappeared
around the estate among the beech trees, lakes
and wooded valleys and the sun shone long enough
to remind everyone that a Tusker would be worth
drinking at the finish!
Despite the fact that the final
Tiger Line had to be abandoned as the ground conditions
were not quite as firm as Brian had hoped (to
put it mildly) there were plenty of smiling faces
at the prize giving so the variety of tasks, sections,
teams and vehicles must have mixed well enough
to ensure a good day was had by all.
Teams:
TEAM No |
ENTRANT/DRIVER |
TEAM NAME |
VEHICLE |
1 |
Mark Marford
|
Bob 3 |
Suzuki Vitara
|
2 |
Mark Burfitt
|
Lost Boys 1
|
Land Rover
110 |
4 |
Andy Sargeant
|
AJS- All Junk
and Scrap |
Yamaha Rhino
ATV |
5 |
Guy Trittion
|
Bump and Grind
|
Land Rover
Series 2A |
6 |
Gurvir Bhabra
|
Bushboys 1
|
Toyota Landcruiser
80 Series |
7 |
Jaspal Kalsi
|
Bushboys 2
|
Land Rover/Range
Rover Hybrid |
8 |
Richard Hilton/Chris
Smart |
Grizzly Rovers
|
Range Rover
V8 |
9 |
Melissa Bowden
|
RAM-GT |
Jeep MB /Hotchkiss
|
10 |
Lawrence Bowden
|
The Raging
Horns |
Land Rover
109" Stage 1 V8 |
11 |
Janet Edwards
|
Rhinos of the
Lost Ark |
Suzuki Jimmy
|
12 |
Kit Kaberry
|
Muddy Boys
|
Land Rover
90 |
14 |
Glenda Bowden
|
The Hurstettes
|
Discovery 200
TDi |
Results:
TEAM
No |
UK
RHINO CHARGE |
TIGER LINE |
FUNDS |
VICTOR LUDORUM |
|
Score |
Position |
Score |
Position |
Raised |
Position |
Score |
Position |
1 |
374 |
6 |
- |
- |
£405 |
6 |
576 |
7 |
2 |
389 |
4 |
10 |
4 |
£400 |
7 |
589 |
6 |
4 |
554 |
1 |
50 |
1 |
£1200 |
1 |
1354 |
1 |
5 |
398 |
3 |
- |
- |
£400 |
7 |
598 |
5 |
6 |
385 |
5 |
30 |
2 |
£910 |
2 |
840 |
2 |
7 |
280 |
9 |
10 |
4 |
£400 |
7 |
480 |
9 |
8 |
498 |
(2 LF) |
60 |
(2 LF) |
£411 |
5 |
LF |
- |
9 |
364 |
7 |
20 |
3 |
£400 |
7 |
564 |
8 |
10 |
318 |
(10 LF) |
10 |
4 |
£400 |
7 |
LF |
- |
11 |
496 |
2 |
50 |
1 |
£495 |
4 |
743.5 |
3 |
12 |
355 |
8 |
- |
- |
£707 |
3 |
708.5 |
4 |
14 |
331 |
(9 LF) |
- |
- |
£400 |
7 |
LF |
- |
LF = Late Finisher – not
included in results so potential finishing position
in brackets for information only.
Total funds raised from sponsorship,
entry fees, safari passes, car parking and Polo
shirt sales is currently £7, 520 with a
little more to be received. Rhino Ark UK would
like to thank all entrants, marshals and sponsors
for their efforts. The UK Rhino Charge for 2008
is planned for Sunday 21 st September so please
start preparing now!
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