The Durham Cricket squad continued their pre-season work with the Angel of the North challenge on Friday.
All members of the Durham Cricket squad were involved as two groups had to check in at the Angel of the North and return back to Emirates Riverside in three hours, 30 minutes.
The task, set by the club’s Lead Strength and Conditioning coach Sam Clark, saw the lad’s complete various challenges along the way including taking a picture with someone walking a dog and finding a member of the public who knew the name of the Durham’s Director of Cricket (Marcus North) or Lead High Performance Coach (James Franklin).
Before grabbing a quick group picture at the Gateshead landmark then heading back to Emirates Riverside.
Lead Strength and Conditioning coach Sam Clark said: “The idea behind the challenge was to bring an element of competition to the morning, two teams going head to head to try and achieve the desired outcome of completing all challenges. Being the first team to and from the Angel of the North, starting and finishing at Emirates Riverside.
“Players were required to work in synergy and to do something different outside of their usual cricket, gym, conditioning schedules.
“The main goal of the morning was ultimately for players to have fun and to enjoy each other’s company.”
The team captained by Ben Raine eventually came out as winners in a time of 2hrs 58mins and 50secs completing all challenges whilst incurring no penalties. The second team completed the challenge in 3hrs 00mins and 55secs but having not completed one of the challenges put them a further 4 minutes behind.
Matthew Potts was on the winning side, he said: “It was a very sign walk in rather miserable weather, with both teams having a goal of coming first.
“A cheeky little run back to HQ from team one secured a win by a couple minutes. Relief that the 17/18k walk wasnt in vain.”