Team Solent Sharks joined by rugby legends for team building challenge
We were recently delighted to welcome some well-known faces from the world of rugby for a team building event with Team Solent Sharks, our wheelchair rugby team.
Welsh rugby legend, Shane Williams; England women’s rugby captain, Tamara Taylor; and former England Rugby Sevens captain, Ollie Phillips were at Solent with the Wooden Spoon charity to select their teams for the charity’s biggest fundraising challenge yet – the LMAX Exchange Everest Rugby Challenge. The Challenge will see four teams, headed by Shane, Tamara, Ollie, and former English rugby international, Lee Mears climb Mount Everest to play each other in what will be the highest game of full-contact rugby, and the highest game of mixed rugby in history.
After the selection, the four teams were each joined by Team Solent Sharks players for a round-robin tournament of five-minute matches, which took place over an hour. They finished the session with a head-to-head match against Team Solent Sharks.
Solent's Head of Sport Programmes, Matt Bishop said, "It's always a pleasure to host our friends from Wooden Spoon here at the University. This is the second event in the last year where we've been able to work with the charity to raise awareness about their projects and our club, Team Solent Sharks. I've always been inspired by the work they do and their most recent Everest Challenge once again shows the extraordinary lengths people will go to raise vital money for disadvantaged children in the UK. I wish all the challengers the best of luck and will be following their progress closely."
We're fairly sure the team captains and the Everest challengers enjoyed the experience!
What a 24hours it has been.. Altitude testing with @AltitudeCentre Gumshield moulding with @OPROGroup An inspiring talk from @edjackson8 Named our @LMAX exchange Everest rugby challenge team members, I nearly kissed @ShaneWilliams11 And played wheelchair rugby with @SolentSharks pic.twitter.com/d4AZg973u9
— Tamara Taylor (@Timmytammy8) December 18, 2018
Our @LMAX Exchange Everest Rugby Challengers are being shown the ropes today by our partners @SolentSharks ! Apparently none of our challengers are “competitive”. We beg to differ... #EverestRugby pic.twitter.com/ccqeymi3OM
— Wooden Spoon (@charityspoon) December 18, 2018
It's @shanewilliams11 like you've never seen him! ♿�� How did he fare in our @LMAX Exchange Everest Rugby Challenge team building session with the inspiring @SolentSharks? #EverestRugby pic.twitter.com/f4diIkiIJL
— Wooden Spoon (@charityspoon) December 19, 2018
About Wooden Spoon
Wooden Spoon changes children’s lives through the power of rugby. They fund around 70 projects each year, ranging from community programmes and specialist playgrounds to medical treatment centres and sensory rooms. Since they were founded in 1983, they have distributed over £26 million to more than 700 projects, helping more than a million children.
Wooden Spoon has a number of high-profile supporters within the world of rugby union, many of whom take part in challenges to raise money for the projects supported by the charity.
Partnership with Solent
Solent University and Wooden Spoon have been partners for a number of years.
The partnership began with some floodlights! Wooden Spoon heard about the first game of rugby to take place under the new floodlights at Solent's Test Park sports ground and sent a message asking if the team would wear Wooden Spoon rugby shirts for the evening and to raise money for the charity. Wooden Spoon CEO, Sarah Webb came to the match and subsequently to the University and was inspired by Solent Sharks, our wheelchair rugby team. One of Wooden Spoon’s main benefactors is a Solent alumni and they wanted to support the Sharks – hence why the team wear the Wooden Spoon logo on their shirts.
The partnership has benefited both Solent and Wooden Spoon – staff have taken part in fundraising events and Pete Hull MBE, Solent Sharks’ Chairman, has been invited to be a guest speaker at Wooden Spoon events. This year, the University’s staff social events group, Staff Scene, nominated Wooden Spoon as its official charity – a cheque for £800 was presented to the charity’s CEO, Sarah Webb by Solent Staff Scene representative, Claire Taylor and Matt Bishop, Solent's Head of Sport Programmes.
