Intrepid adventurers tackle arctic conditions to set a World Record

LMAX Exchange

Last night LMAX Exchange hosted a press event to officially unveil and launch the Wooden Spoon Arctic Rugby Challenge.

Wooden Spoon is the children’s rugby charity founded in 1983 which is dedicated to transforming the lives of disadvantaged children and young people across the British Isles through the power of rugby.

The Arctic Rugby Challenge will see two teams, set out from Resolute Bay, Canada in the middle of April 2015 to trek up to 100 miles to the furthest place north on the planet, the certified Magnetic North Pole. This pioneering expedition, expected to take 7 days to complete, will be led by world class maritime, polar adventurer, Jock Wishart who will be accompanied by intrepid adventures including former Rugby Internationals Tim Stimpson (England) and Pat Sanderson (England and British Lions) as well as LMAX Exchange, CEO David Mercer.

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The Arctic conditions will see them learn how to survive in harrowing winds, avoid and scare away polar bears and temperatures as low as 50C with wind chill. Once the teams arrive at their final destination, and in celebration of the Rugby World Cup, they will attempt to set a world record and play the northernmost rugby match in history.

This challenge is a once in a lifetime experience with the opportunity to set a unique World Record and the first of its kind for Wooden Spoon and is estimated to raise over £300,000 for the charity.

Find out more about the challenges facing the adventures:

View the presentation from Jock Wishart

View the itinerary for the Arctic challenge

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About Wooden Spoon

Wooden Spoon is the children’s rugby charity founded in 1983 which is dedicated to transforming the lives of disadvantaged children and young people across the British Isles through the power of rugby.

The charity partners with the rugby community, which includes as established patrons all four home unions and the RFL, to receive invaluable support and the opportunity to raise awareness of the work they undertake. They also involve some of rugby’s top sporting role models in making a difference to the lives of young people in need.
Inspired by its rugby heritage, their core values of passion, integrity, teamwork, and fun have so far benefited over one million young people who face a multitude of different physical, mental and social disadvantages.

More than £20million of charitable support has been granted to schools, hospitals, care homes and hospices, other children’s charities and community projects.
Currently Wooden Spoon is one of the UK’s leading providers of sensory rooms and gardens which are essential in the effective therapeutic treatment of people with sense or communication disorders.

The charity proudly comprises over 40 regional volunteer committees, a central national team and more than 10,000 members while it also enjoys the longstanding patronage from HRH The Princess Royal.

Wooden Spoon regional committees undertake local fundraising activities and only spend the money raised on projects in their local community.

Since becoming a patron in 2009, the Rugby Football League has worked tirelessly alongside Wooden Spoon on community programmes aimed at significantly improving the lives of 16-19 year olds who are currently not in education, employment or training across the UK.

In 2011, Wooden Spoon received the International Rugby Board’s Spirit of Rugby Award for its services in the charity sector. Wooden Spoon is the only charity to have received this prestigious award.

About Jock Wishart

Jock Wishart is a maritime and polar adventurer, sportsman and explorer. Until his successful 2011 Old Pulteney Row to the Pole, he was best known for his circumnavigation of the globe in a powered vessel, setting a new world record in the Cable & Wireless Adventurer and for organising and leading the Polar Race. In 1996, Wishart and David Hempleman-Adams organised The Ultimate Challenge, in which they chose 10 arctic novices from over 500 applicants and successfully led them to the Magnetic North Pole.

Following the success of this expedition, which proved that novices could be trained and equipped for a Polar expedition, the two men established The Polar Race. The first Polar Race was April 2003. Before April, it’s too dark and after April there’s open water. Since 2003, the race has been run every other year: 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011. As of May 2007, three races have been run with 40 out of 41 competitors successfully reaching the Pole. In the ensuing two races, every competitor reached the North Pole. In 2011, Wishart led a crew on a voyage that rowed 500 miles on journey to the 1996 certified position of the Magnetic North Pole. The expedition team included Adventurers and mariners Mark Delstanche,Rob Sleep, Billy Gammon and Captain David Mans. The BBC filmed the expedition for a TV documentary and its filmmaker Mark Beaumont joined the crew. The boat was named The Old Pulteney after the projects sponsor’s single malt whisky brand.

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