During two weeks of the Children in Need Campaign there were some strange happenings in various locations throughout the UK. From the Bass Brewery Musuem in Burton on Trent, Cleckheaton Rugby Club in Yorkshire and Ponyclun Rugby Club in South Wales to Bath University, teams from Civil Engineering companies, Builders Merchants and Polypipe Civils Ltd., of Loughborough took part in the "Polypipe Pudsey Challenge" to raise money for Charity.

Over the years, teams of people have carried out some weird and wonderful activities to raise money for Charity, none perhaps so strange as to assemble the shape "P" using 400mm diameter Ridgisewer system consisting of five lengths of pipe, one branch and three bends in the fastest possible time.

The idea, originated from Sheila Bone, Polypipe Civils Ltd., Assistant to the Managing Director, was to see who could assemble these products in the fastest possible time, adding a connecting saddle into the side of one of the pipes, sealing the whole unit and carrying out an air test to the satisfaction of the judge, John Moss, Drainage Development Manager of Polypipe Civils.

During the four days of the competition, 24 teams drawn from Civil Engineering Companies, Builders Merchants and even a ladies team from Polypipe Civils competed against each other and the clock. During the first day the winning time was 8 minutes and 2 seconds by a team of Builders Merchants, WT Burdens of Rugeley. This very competitive time was beaten on the last day by team D20 from Bristol consisting of John Rose, Mark Walburton and Richard Farrugia at the Salis Bath University Sports Club. They completed the "P" and carried out a successful air test in a staggering 3 minutes and 7 seconds. "Just try doing that in concrete!" commented John Rose.

The letter "P" was constructed by simple jointing method completed by pushing firmly the plastic structured pipe together with a rubber ring seal into the socket of the fitting, made the construction of the letter "P" a simple and speedy operation. The extremely light weight of the 3 and 2 metre lengths of pipe, plus the fittings, made handling an effortless operation confirmed by a superb time of 8 minutes and 2 seconds acheived by the ladies team.

All teams were amazed at the ease of assembly and in particular the robustness of the products specially some who had not handled this material before.

Money is still being collected by the participating teams from their companies and customers will help raise the eventual grand total for Children in Need.

Steve Boyer, Polypipe Civils Managing Director, who was present at all the events stated "It is great to see how well the products stood up to the rough treatment they recieved and some of the teams who had not handled structured wall pipes before were amazed at the ease of jointing and in particular the lightweight of the pipes and fittings".

He thanked all those participating and for their generous sponsorship for a very worthy while Charity as he presented them with their winning certificates at each venue.

19th December 2002