25 Jul 2024
The streets of St Albans will become a giant interactive treasure hunt this September, raising money for charity while offering teams a unique take on the city they love.
The Great St Albans Challenge is a one-day event where participants race around on foot, tackling challenges, cracking clues and racking up points.
Starting and finishing at St Albans Cathedral, all you need to take part is a mobile phone, with all profits raised from the event supporting Youth Talk, the local charity providing free, confidential counselling for 13-25 year olds.
The event has a rolling start time of 11.30am-12.30pm and once started, teams have 2.5 hours to explore the city and complete the various challenges, with plenty of time to refuel with a cuppa and snack en route. The clock stops at 3pm when teams must be seated at the Cathedral for the grand finale to find out who will be crowned the 2024 champions.
The Great St Albans Challenge is the brainchild of the Barker brothers, Peter and David, respectively the director of event organisers Wildgoose and chief executive of Youth Talk, who grew up in St Albans, attending first Cunningham Hill and them Verulam schools.
Although they have followed different career paths, they have plenty of shared interests in the community, and have worked together on a number of events and activities over the years.But when you put the Barker boys together, how much friendly rivalry is there between them? We caught up with the “mischief of twins”, as their parents may have referred to them, to find out more about the Challenge and whether they’ll be taking part.
David laughs: “We’ll both be busy on the day helping others to enjoy it – so unlikely we’ll be taking part. If we were I’d have obviously won it (although Peter will have access to all the answers and access to the scoreboards as his company Wildgoose are running the event!).”
Peter pipes up: “Hmmm, I think over 20 years running events companies would definitely have given me the edge and a distinct advantage.”
So how much friendly rivalry is there between them? “We’re both determined, both driven, both short, and both wanted to win the egg and spoon day at school!” David reveals.
Working together on a project must also pose its challenges, do the brothers generally find themselves in agreement with each other?
David speaks up first: “It will be interesting to say what Peter says to this one – but in the main it’s probably 50:50 – we are identical twins after all! As kids there were probably more ‘disagreements’ and clashes – usually with one of us blaming the other!”
But Peter has the last word: “We don’t really clash – I just tell David and he does what he is told! On a serious note, I think the fact that we are both driven and motivated by similar things helps so on the whole we tend to agree about stuff… our parents may have had a different view when we were younger!”
The organisers of the Challenge aim to raise £10,000 to support Youth Talk, and the headline sponsor for this year is The Maltings Shopping Centre.
Centre manager Richard Marrett said: “We are delighted to sponsor The Great St Albans Challenge as part of our commitment to support the local community through the valuable work of Youth Talk.”
Enter a team now! Book before August 31 to take advantage of an early bird offer of £40 per team – teams can be between 4-6 people. Register a team and find out about sponsorship opportunities at www.charitychallenge.events
Photos by Tony Barr
