Felpham Scout trio take first place in night hike

The trio from the newly formed Arctic Fox unit, based at Felpham Methodist Church, conquered the course, the weather and their opponents for an instant success.

Matt Baker-Irons (16), Matthew Farrant and Oliver Lewis (both 15) joined forces with a three-strong team explorer unit from Findon Valley.

Their unit leader, Simon Baker-Irons, said: "They navigated their way around checkpoints where they worked as a team through activities that included creating a device to pick up a pretend bomb, memory games, bungee-ing an egg and cycling problems.

"The Arctic Fox explorers proved very successful at these and, after trudging through mud, streams and whatever else that was thrown at them for 12 hours, they finished at 7.30am."

The hike started at Broadstone Warren, a large scout campsite in East Sussex.

The 16-mile circulated route partly followed a dismantled railway before it entered the Ashdown Forest.

Heavy rain fell to add to the challenges. A total of 15 teams took part in the event.